Metroid: the Gensokyo Project
by U.N. Owen the Son of Steel
Summary: Gensokyo in the future is a desolate wasteland plagued by the evil of Phazon. Samus, a team of Federation marines, and a small science team do not know what evil lurks in the once beautiful land of Gensokyo. Neither do its inhabitants.
1. Bad Memories

Chapter 1: Bad Memories

Date: June 23, 2452

Location: GF Quarantine Area: Omega

Condition of target area: Highly radioactive. Few lifeforms present.

"Why the hell are we down here, sir?" complained one of the Federation marines. "Really, why are here? There's nothing down here except us! The damn Science team doesn't need help collecting samples and that bounty hunter over there certainly doesn't need our help."

"Because," replied the marine's CO, "they already sent in two other Science teams and one small group of marines and all them went missing. Plus, there's been an increase in Pirate activity in this particular area. So quit your damn complaining and do your job!"

"Yes sir," grumbled the marine.

Even though she wasn't complaining out loud, Samus also did not want to be there. It reminded her too much of Tallon IV. She also agreed on the fact that there was nothing out there and her gunship's onboard computer verified that. It was a desolate, radioactive wasteland with a few rotting buildings, forests, and lakes that were also quite barren. But one building did interest her a little bit. A somewhat small and considerably well preserved building that she saw as she was entering the landing zone. It appeared to be pure of all of the foul impurities in this dark wasteland.

"Hey! I think I found something!" yelled one of the Science operatives excitedly.

"I swear Anderson, if it's another one those useless relics you found today, I'm going to beat upside the head with this Geiger counter!" yelled the lead Science Tech. The Science team so far had found a grand total of twenty of some rather unimportant objects, mainly located in what appeared to be a village at some point.

"No, I found this highly radioactive rock! I think it might be Phazon," Anderson stated.

Samus flinched when she heard this. _Phazon!?! No! Impossible! I destroyed every once of that substance. How can there more of it? _she thought with disbelief.

"Phazon? How is that possible?" the leader of the Science team questioned.

"That's what probably caused the destruction of this village and surrounding areas" one of the Science Techs stated.

"But how did it not spread throughout the rest of planet?" asked the lead Tech.

Before anyone could answer, a loud, monstrous shriek pierced the air.

"What the hell was that?" asked the marine that was complaining before.

"The reason you're here," replied his CO coolly, "Now let's go! I think it came from the north."

They didn't know it, but the entire party was standing on the remains of the Human Village and that shriek came from one of the blackest places in Gensokyo: Scarlet Devil Mansion.


	2. Pirate Fear

Chapter 2: When the Devil's away, the Pirates will play

Date: June 23, 2452

Location: Space Pirate recon picket: SDM

Condition of target area: Highly radioactive. Few lifeforms present.

As Samus and her party were landing in quarantine zone, a small, yet well armed group of Space Pirate commandos and troopers were attempting to gain access to a large building where they detected a large spike of unknown energy. After failing to use Metroids as a viable energy source and their supply of Phazon is now depleted, the Pirates are now desperate for a new, powerful form of energy, and this is their opportunity.

The Pirates quickly organized a scouting party to investigate this phenomenon and had reached the front gate of the building.

"Sir this gate is securely locked" said one of troopers in his race's own guttural language.

"Then destroy it, you fool," snarled one of commandos.

The Pirate then grabbed a demolition charge and planted it on the gate's lock. He ordered the group to clear out and detonated the the explosive. Little did they know, they had just woken up the last surviving occupant of that mansion. And she was hungry.

The Pirates then marched in on the house and broke down the door. Despite the fact that there was no resistance, the Pirates still treated the area as if it were teaming with enemies by opening fire with their weapons until they overheated.

"All clear," stated one of the Pirates.

The commander of the group, a bounty hunter named Weavel, looked around once and called the group over towards him.

"I had just gotten an update on our mission," he said, "Command has just sent us a map of this building. This building also appears to be larger on the inside than it is on the outside, therefore I want all of you to stay together and do not separate. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir," they all said simultaneously.

"Good, then let's move out," Weavel commanded.

As the Pirates moved towards the great hall of the mansion, Weavel thought he saw a blip on his radar. He turned towards the blip and saw nothing.

_ Must have been my imagination, or this radiation armor command gave me is garbage_, Weavel thought uneasily.

But it wasn't his imagination. Indeed he did see a blip and his group was being followed.

_What funny looking creatures_, Flandre thought to herself, _I wonder if they'll play with me and, better yet, have dinner with me._

Flandre has been locked in a basement with hardly any outside contact for 495 years. That is, until her sister went insane. She also found the true origin of her food shortly after some sort of "incident" that occurred.

After much searching in the basement of the mansion, the recon party noticed something quite odd with one of the rooms. The door was apparently blown clean off its hinges and, judging by its remains, it was an extremely heavy door. The Pirates were puzzled by this.

"What could've possibly have destroyed this door?" one of the troopers asked.

"It was probably meant to keep something out," one of the commandos assumed, "Whatever the owners were trying to keep out they didn't do a very good job of keeping it out."

"No," Weavel disagreed, "I think it was meant to keep something in. And whatever is it's loose."

Weavel then ordered one of troopers to do a full bio-scan of the entire building.

"It's completely void of life, sir," the trooper responded, "No signs of life present."

Weavel breathed a sigh of uneasy relief.

_But why do I feel like we're being watched?_ Weavel thought to himself.

Later, the team made their way through the seemingly barren mansion to a poorly blockaded door. Behind that door was the source of the energy spike the Pirates detected earlier.

"This is it?" one of commandos asked incredulously, "The power source we've been looking for is behind this door? This has got to be some kind of joke!"

The commando pushed aside some of the troopers in his way, picked up a grenade launcher, and fired at the untidy pile of furniture and other assorted debris. The blockade and the door were instantly blown to splinters and other bits of shrapnel.

"You damn fool," yelled Weavel, "You could've killed us with that grenade launcher!"

As Weavel was yelling this, he was beating the hapless commando with the grenade launcher that now frightened commando had used to open the door. Flandre who was trying to stifle giggles while watching the commando get severely beaten for is foolish move. She was then stopped by an incredibly painful headache that she now gets from time to time. She also re noticed that her wings, which were composed of iron and (now formerly) multicolored prism shards, were now all composed of a light colored electric blue.

As Weavel was finishing his beating, he looked up and noticed something quite fascinating. At the far end of the room was a regal looking throne with a bat embossed ornately on the top of the throne. But that isn't what interested him. The thing that interested him the most was a large glowing spear. The spear was emitting a blood red glow that seemed to draw Weavel towards it.

_This is the power source?_ Weavel thought to himself, _But it's just a spear. No matter, Command will still think this is an interesting find. There's something about this spear that seems...powerful._

Weavel then advanced towards the spear and cautiously grabs the spear. He feels some sort of energy course through him and he felt so powerful that he felt he could destroy the bounty hunter that trumped him so many times. Those thoughts were shattered when he heard an earsplitting shriek cut the air.

"YOU BASTARDS!!! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH GUNGNIR!!!" shrieked Flandre.

Weavel only laughed insidiously.

"Dispose of this human," he said in perfect English.

The Pirates didn't need to be told twice. They brought up their weapons and...were incinerated into piles of blackened ash. Shocked Weavel thought to himself, _NO!!! How can this happen? She's only a little girl!_

As he was thinking this, Flandre drew Laevatein, a powerful and destructive sword that has served her well in many battles. Weavel tossed aside Gungnir and drew his plasma scythe. Even though he knew that this girl could turn him into a pile of smoldering ash, he could not turn down a hand to hand contest such as this.

Flandre charged at Weavel with blinding speed and slashed at him with a powerful downward stroke. Weavel, who was far more skilled at sword combat than Flandre, easily parried this attack and slashed with his own weapon. Flandre dodged this and tried to slash at Weavel again. Weavel blocked this attack and performed confusing slashes that even Flandre, with her advanced senses, found hard to block. Finally, Weavel did a spinning slash that finally landed. Flandre shrieked with pain, feeling the burning sensation that occurs when hot, molten plasma meets flesh. Flandre took a few steps back and crumpled to the ground, weakened and in pain. Weavel, laughing, withdrew his scythe and pointed his beam cannon at Flandre's head.

"Well that was an interesting battle girl," Weavel sneered, "but I'm afraid it's time for us to say farewell to each other."

Flandre started to giggle hysterically. Weavel, confused by this, was now more confused as Flandre pulled out a small card.

"What is that?" asked Weavel anxiously.

"Your doom," Flandre replied with malice and contempt as she activated the spell card.

Sensing this, Weavel fled, not caring about the little girl laughing behind him or Gungnir. He just wanted to get out of that evil mansion.

"Command this Weavel!" Weavel spoke into his transmitter, "I'm in need of heavy support."

"Understood. We'll send a large unit of heavily armed commandos to your location as soon as possible," the command officer replied.

"No! The enemy I encountered will destroy that unit in seconds! Release Ridley!" Weavel pleaded.

"Ridley? Is it really that powerful," asked the officer nervously.

"JUST SEND HIM!!!" shouted Weavel now fearing for his life. It had become extremely hot in the building and Weavel could tell his time was running out.

"Understood," replied the officer.

The order was sent just at the moment Weavel found a window to jump out of. He landed with catlike grace and ran as fast as he could towards the skiff that brought him to that hellish mansion.

Meanwhile, Ridley was released, now relishing his rebirth and his new assignment to destroy a new and powerful enemy.


	3. The Pocket Watch

Chapter 3: The Pocketwatch

Date: June 23, 2452

Location: Landing Zone: Alpha

Condition of target area: Intermediate levels of radiation detected. No lifeforms present.

Coincidentally, the landing zone just happened to be right in front of the small building Samus noticed earlier. Here she felt rather calm and at ease.

"All right boys," the marine commander said, "Sounds like we've got a rather pissed off something in the north and after reviewing the map, it appears to be located in a large mansion. Now I'm not entirely sure of what 'it' is, but it sounds like we may need some heavy fire power. So I want two of you guys to carry missile launchers with you at all times and turn your sensitivity on your radar to its highest level, understood?"

"Yes sir!" yelled the marines eagerly. All of them were thinking the same thing: Time to kick some ass!

Samus though wasn't paying attention to the marines' chatter. She was more concerned about what was inside the building. It was a small, humble building that had appeared to have Asian, possibly Japanese, architecture. Samus, opened the sliding door, that stuck a little but still opened, and walked inside. The main room was open and quite dim. Samus switched to her thermal visor so she could see better. There was a large Buddha in the center of the room, near the back and a small table in front of it.

_Maybe this is a shrine? _Samus thought to herself, _Probably shouldn't touch anything in here._

Samus then noticed a door that was slightly ajar on the right hand side of the room. She walked towards it and opened it. The room was what appeared to be a small bedroom. The bed itself was rotted and hardly looked like a bed. There was also a small desk and a modest sized bookshelf, lined with decaying volumes and scrolls, save one that appeared to be in good condition. Samus, curious, picked up the book and opened it. She opened to a hollowed out section and found an old-fashioned pocket watch. There was an inscription on it that read _Sakuya Izayoi._

_This watch is ancient! _Samus thought to herself, _It's got to be over 500 years old._

She opened the pocket watch to examine it some more. The watch read twelve o'clock. A note fell out of the watch and landed on the floor. Samus picked it up and opened it. The note was written in Japanese and Samus didn't speak a word of that language. So she switched to her scan visor and scanned the note. After skimming through the unimportant data, she finally found the actual information of the note.

_Turn the dial three times_

_and you will find the fate of_

_Gensokyo._

Puzzled by this, Samus did what the note told her. The watch's minute hand moved to twelve thirty.Nothing happened. A little disappointed, Samus was about to put the watch down when, suddenly, the watch started to vibrate and start to feel warm. Frightened by this, Samus was about to throw the watch and run when a bright light engulfed her. If there was anyone who had saw this it would have appeared that she had disappeared into thin air.

Samus then awoke to a strange sight. The room and the building was suddenly in perfect condition. She also noticed that there was an update on her HUD. It read: _New upgrade detected._

_I didn't upgrade my suit, _Samus thought uneasily.

The rest of the message said: _New upgrade: Pocket watch._ Now really confused Samus read the description of her "upgrade". _Device has ability to control local timespace. Device also has the ability to speed up, slow down, stop, and reverse time. The device, however, has a separate power source that recharges itself over time. The current status of the device: Unstable. The device is not running at full capacity and cannot maintain current activity for a long period of time._

This was made true in the fact that Samus couldn't see herself in a nearby mirror.

_So I'm a ghost,_ Samus thought to herself.

She quick checked what the date was on her suit. It read: _June 23, 2010._

"Great," Samus said to herself.

She walked outside the building and was greeted with the most beautiful scenery anyone has ever seen.

"This can't be the radioactive wasteland I was at earlier," Samus said awestruck by the beautiful landscape.

She then froze when she saw a girl with a large red bow in her black hair, wearing a red dress with sleeves that were separate from the rest of her outfit, was staring directly at her.

"Reimu!" yelled another girl who was directly behind Samus, "Where do want this stuff?"

The girl, who was rather short and had what appeared to be horns, walked right through Samus. Samus was shocked by this.

"How the hell did that girl walk through me and were those horns?" Samus asked herself.

It suddenly dawned on her that she wasn't imagining this and she was a ghost.

"Set it over by that ledge, I'll pick it up later," the girl who was apparently named Reimu told the other girl.

Samus backed away a little bit and bumped into another girl. This girl was wearing a maid uniform and had silvery gray hair that was braided in the front.

"And I suppose this girl can't see or hear me either," Samus said to herself.

"As a matter of fact I can see you and hear you," the girl replied in a matter of fact tone.

Samus flinched when she heard the girl respond to her.

"And no you're not imagining this," the girl carried on.

"Who are you? Where am I? And how the hell did I get here?" Samus asked now confused more than ever. This, so far, has been her most mind boggling mission ever.

"My name is Sakuya Izayoi, head maid of Scarlet Devil Mansion," Sakuya replied, "Your in Gensokyo, a land that has sealed from the rest of the outside world. And you got here by time travel, an ability that I'm quite talented at."

"Wait, this place is sealed off from the rest of the world?" Samus asked.

"Yes and that's why the Phazon here in the future did not spread throughout the rest of the planet, because it has been sealed up in this barrier for years," Sakuya answered.

"How did the Phazon get here?" Samus asked.

"I'll show you," Sakuya said as she grabbed Samus's hand and were taken forward in time.

Samus and Sakuya were then at, what appeared to be, a large festival. There was an air about this festival that made Samus feel relaxed and happy. She noticed that there was a girl wearing a pinkish colored dress, had a blue hair, and a pair of bat wings. At her side was Sakuya and another girl with blonde hair and a pair of wings that comprised of iron and prism shards.

"Lady Remilia and her sister Flandre," Sakuya said as she appeared next to Samus, "You know, this was actually the first time Remilia let her sister out to go to one of these."

"Wait," Samus said, "Aren't you over there?"

"Yes," Sakuya replied with a small grin on her face.

"Then how are you over here?" Samus asked.

"I'll explain later," Sakuya said distractedly, "Look, there it is."

Sakuya pointed at a long, blue streak that cut the sky. People were startled when they saw it roar by them at a blinding rate of speed. A bright light enveloped once joyous festival and the shockwave caused people to lose their balance and fall over.

"What was that?" Samus heard Reimu ask despite the chaos of the crowd.

"The latest scoop, that's what it is!" said a girl with short black hair and black wings excitedly. She was also carrying a professional looking camera and a notepad.

"Aya, don't get to excited -ze," warned another girl with long, blond hair and wearing a witch's hat.

"Oh Marisa, don't worry about me!" said Aya reassuringly, "It's probably nothing except a large hunk of rock that's probably going to end up on page four anyway."

"Okay then," said Reimu uneasily, "but if you're not back in an hour, we're going to go look for you, okay?"

Before she could finish, Aya had already flown off towards the impact crater.

"Let's go to the crater," Sakuya said.

In an instant, Samus and Sakuya were at the crater. They were beheld by a horrid sight. Aya was sitting on the ground near a large, blue streaked rock that was jutting out of the ground. She was rocking back and forth, mumbling something incoherent, and holding herself. The camera she was holding before was a black, melted mass. Her hair had streaks of gray in it.

"What happened to her?" Samus asked concerned.

"You'll find out," Sakuya replied as Reimu, Marisa, Remilia, Sakuya, and a few other people that Samus didn't recognize but had a feeling that most of them weren't actually "people."

"Aya! What happened to you?" Reimu asked fearfully.

Aya only mumbled a few words, "Blue...not good idea...meteorite...monster."

"Oh geez!" Marisa exclaimed with disbelief, "Something really scared her."

"Yeah, but what?" asked Reimu.

Before anyone could answer, a bone chilling laugh echoed around the group.

"That laugh," Samus recalled, "I've heard it before. But where?"

The group looked up and saw a figure clad in dark blue armor hovering above them. Samus could only stare at the figure. She now remembered all to well who this was. This was Dark Samus, formerly known as Metroid Prime.

_I thought I killed you, you bastard, _Samus thought angrily as she raised her beam cannon to fire. Samus fired her power beam at Dark Samus until she noticed that the shots weren't doing anything.

"I could've told you that wouldn't work," Sakuya informed Samus.

Samus only watched as Dark Samus continued to laugh hysterically.

"Who are you?" Reimu asked angrily.

Still Dark Samus only laughed. Then, she suddenly stopped. Noticing she was largely outnumbered she dropped to the ground at a high rate of speed which caused a shockwave to stun her opponents. She then went for who she thought was the weakest of the group, who happened to be a girl with light blue hair and wings that comprised of ice crystals.

"Cirno watch out!" yelled Reimu as she was picking herself up.

But Cirno was too slow to react. Dark Samus rushed her, grabbed her by the throat, and blasted her with a shot from her Phazon beam.

"NOOO!!!" screamed Reimu with dismay.

Dark Samus then went and attacked the other girls. Reimu rushed to Cirno as she laid on the ground.

"Reimu, I thought I was stronger than it," Cirno said with a dazed and confused tone.

"You are, Cirno," reassured Reimu.

"Then why am I laying on the ground while you just stand there like the dumb bitch you are?" Cirno spat at Reimu with malice that wasn't like her.

"Cirno what happened to you?" Reimu asked, hurt by Cirno's unnatural cruelty.

"She's going into Phazon madness," Samus said with sorrow.

Reimu backed away from the dying fairy, who was cackling with evil and malice, with fear and ran towards Aya, who was standing and not mumbling anymore.

"Aya!" Reimu exclaimed relieved, "Let's get out of here!"

Aya only turned around slowly and attacked Reimu with a vicious wind attack. Reimu dodged this and, as Aya was about to attack again, a bright beam of energy hit Aya full on.

"Reimu let's get out of here!" Marisa shouted.

Sakuya was dragging Remilia, who was bleeding heavily, with her as she was simultaneously throwing knives at Dark Samus. Reimu noticed that all the other girls were walking around dazed and zombie-like or were on the ground cursing Reimu and the other survivors and saying black, evil things about them. Reimu and the survivors went to Scarlet Devil Mansion to take refuge. Samus and Sakuya followed them. They were in a room with the other Sakuya and Remilia, who was lying on bed unconscious.

"Now you will see what happened to me," Sakuya said with sadness.

"Sakuya," Remilia said weakly.

"Yes Lady Remilia?" Sakuya asked.

"Come here," Remilia said, "I need to tell you something."

Sakuya obediently went towards her mistress. Suddenly Remilia grabbed Sakuya by the neck and pulled her close to her.

"I always wanted to say," Remilia said in a now clear yet sinister voice, "that you sucked as a maid."

That's when Remilia bit down on Sakuya's neck and began sucking her dry of her blood. Samus heard a small gasp from behind her and noticed Flandre hiding behind the door. Reimu and Remilia's gatekeeper, Hong Meiling, burst into the room. Reimu grabbed her seals and tossed them at Remilia, which hit their mark and caused Remilia to let go of Sakuya. Remilia started to scream loudly as the seals started to do their work. They were blessed to do one thing and one thing only: to kill vampires. Remilia stopped screaming and laid dead. Flandre was crying at this point. Sakuya, still alive, crawled towards Reimu with the pocket watch clutched in her hand.

"Take this," Sakuya said weakly, "Someone will find it someday and save us. Don't lose it."

Sakuya then died. The Sakuya that was standing next to Samus only looked at her corpse.

"Later on, the poison spread throughout Gensokyo, blanketing it with its evil," Sakuya explained still looking at her corpse, "All the other girls that were at the crater either destroyed parts of Gensokyo or themselves. One of the girls, a ghost named Yuyuko Saigyouji, killed off her staff and burned large portions of Gensokyo. She then went to Hakurei shrine and threw herself into a closet full of exorcising seals. Marisa was killed by one of her close friends, a dollmaker named Alice Margatroid. After a long battle, Alice finally used one of her most potent dolls to destroy Marisa. It not only killed Marisa and herself, but destroyed large portions of the Forest of Magic. Flandre went on a rampage and attacked many humans, discovering where her food came from. She encountered Dark Samus and was defeated in the end, but escaped. Reimu was the only sane person left in Gensokyo, although her physical condition was slowly deteriorating. She then went to challenge Dark Samus. After almost defeating her, Dark Samus used a powerful attack which left didn't kill Reimu immediately, but defeated her nonetheless. Reimu escaped and later died at her shrine."

Sakuya finished and turned towards Samus.

"You see why we need you now," Sakuya said with a look of desperation, "Gensokyo is in ruins because of this monster and you're the only one who can stop it."

"I'd love to help you, but I can't do anything if I'm a ghost," Samus replied regretfully.

"Go to Scarlet Devil Mansion and find Remilia's spear, Gungnir," explained Sakuya, "It contains power that will allow you to travel to the past and stay there longer. But be warned, the watch I gave you is volatile. If you are attacked suddenly while you are getting power you will open a portal that will engulf you and whoever is around you and send you into the past. Good luck"

Sakuya then sent Samus back to her own time period. As Samus walked out the shrine, the soldiers were getting ready to leave.

"Hey there you are!" yelled one of the marines, "We were looking all over for you. Now hop on, we're already behind schedule."

As Samus boarded the small transport ship, she looked back at the shrine. She was thankful that noone could see behind her visor, because she was weeping as they pulled away.


	4. Change of Plans

Chapter 4: Change of Plans

Date: June 23, 2452

Location: Space Pirate recon picket: SDM

Condition of target area: Highly radioactive. Few lifeforms present.

"Let's go marines!" ordered the GFMC commander. There was plenty of "Hoorah! Hoorah! Hoorah!" amongst the marines as they were unloading in the courtyard of Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"`Bout time we started to kick some ass," said the complaining marine.

"Well said Garcia!" said one of psyched up marines, whose nickname was "Moose," adding an extra "Hoorah!" after his sentence.

As Samus jumped off the transport ship, she looked at the mansion and remembered what had happened in there, but she kept her thoughts to herself and followed the marines into the building.

"Hey, this door was kicked in," commented one of the marines, who went by the nickname "Melon head." He even went so far as to decal it on his armor.

"Not only that," added another marine, who had the unfortunate nickname of "Stinky," "the first room is completely shot up. Appears to be Space Pirate weapon fire."

"Well that's bad news," said the commander, whose last name was Sanders. Unsurprisingly, the soldiers fondly referred to him as "The Colonel."

"Well what do we do?" asked another marine, who went by the name of "Slim."

"We find them, and we kick their asses!" replied Garcia, now excited to see some action. This was greeted by a simultaneous "Hoorah!"

The Science team had gone with two other marines to a research picket that an earlier group was working on. The small assault team ventured throughout the mansion following almost the same path as the Space Pirates before them. Samus didn't really care about the marines' search for an interesting fire-fight, she was busy looking for Gungnir. Flandre was also following this group and she could smell their blood.

_They smell like humans,_ Flandre thought to herself, _I haven't smelled that scent since after Reimu's death. This is going to be delicious._

"This sucks!" exclaimed Melon Head, "There's nothing here! Someone do a bioscan of this place!"

"Can't," said Slim, "The Science team took it with them."

"Goddammit!" yelled Melon Head angrily, as he threw down his missile launcher and leaned up against the wall.

"Oh, quit your bitchin'" admonished Garcia.

_Hypocrite,_ thought Samus.

Then she noticed a blip on her radar. Obviously, the other marines, especially Melon Head, noticed this too because they turned around to see Flandre standing in the middle of the corridor giggling.

"Oh, it's only little girl," said Melon Head disappointed.

"Hey kid!" yelled Stinky, "This isn't good place to play in! It's radioactive, ya hear? _Radioactive._"

But Flandre only giggled harder.

"Creepy little girl, ain't she?" Slim said to Samus. But Samus wasn't listening. She recognized Flandre, but there was one thing different about her. The prism shards on her back were blue. She did a quick scan on Flandre and found that the shards were charged with Phazon. Samus raised her beam cannon to fire and charged it.

_I'm sorry Flandre, but you shouldn't have to live like this,_ Samus thought sorrowfully.

"What the hell are you doing!?!" asked Sanders, shocked. He knocked Samus's beam cannon aside just as she fired a charged shot at Flandre.

Meanwhile, Ridley was making his way to his objective.

_I thought Weavel was competent enough to handle this. Obviously not,_ Ridley thought to himself.

Ridley had so far gone under many rebirths over his lifetime each of them more painful than the last. He did a quick ground scan and found Weavel piloting a skiff heading towards the Pirate battlecruiser that had landed near Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Weavel I want you to go back to the recon picket," ordered Ridley.

"Sir the enemy I encountered down there will destroy me," replied Weavel.

"I don't care!" Ridley roared back, "You have a mission to complete, so do it. Or would you rather have me 'decomission' you?"

Weavel knew better than to argue with that threat, so he obediently turned the skiff around and headed back to the mansion.

_I may need more support,_ thought Ridley. So he ordered the battlecruiser to move closer to the recon picket.

Ridley had this all planned out: He would use Weavel to draw out this "enemy" and that he would fight it until it he either destroyed it, or he if he became too wounded to fight on. Then he would use the battlecruiser's Apocalypse-class laser to completely level the recon picket. No matter what his opponent wasn't going to win. As Ridley was flying he saw a large, rundown building with large stands of old, dead cherry trees in the inner courtyard. He also noticed a Federation transport ship docked there. He had time before Weavel actually got to the mansion, so Ridley flew straight towards the unsuspecting Science team.

Even though the shot missed its primary target, it still hit Flandre with enough force to stun her.

"You crazy bitch!" scolded Sanders, furious with Samus, "What the hell were you thinking? You almost killed that poor little girl!"

"She was poisoned with Phazon," Samus shot back, "plus, she has an extremely high threat level."

The last part was a lie. Samus's scan visor showed that Flandre's threat level was extremely low. Flandre, even though she was unconscious for about five seconds, came to and felt horrible pain in her abdomen. She started cry quite loudly.

"Why did you do that?" asked Flandre in a hurt, tear filled tone, "I didn't do anything to you. Why do you have to be so mean?"

Melon Head, even though he seemed like tough, mean son-of-a-bitch, had a soft spot which made him feel bad for the strange, yet sort of creepy, little girl crying at the end of the corridor. Samus, on the other hand, only felt pity for the little girl who was consumed by Phazon centuries earlier.

"Aw, don't feel bad kid," Melon Head said in a sweet voice, "That mean lady over there is a bitch anyway."

Samus felt a tad offended by this, but was too distracted by what Flandre was going to do next to be concerned about what a meat-head marine had to say about her. Melon Head clipped his weapon to the side of his armor and walked towards Flandre. He knelt down and tried to comfort her.

"Don't worry about it," he said in a comforting tone, "How's about you show us around this place. We might get lost you know."

Flandre wiped her tears from her eyes and sniffled a little bit.

"Yeah, okay," agreed Flandre, "but keep that mean lady away from me."

"Sure thing," Melon Head said, "You here that 'mean lady?' You better stay away from this little girl or she'll have us kick your ass!"

"Yeah! They'll kick your ass!" Flandre giggled cheerfully.

The group, with Flandre in lead skipping merrily down the halls and Samus in the rear so she doesn't try to do anything, followed the little girl down the hallways of Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"So what's your name?" asked Slim.

"Flandre Scarlet," answered Flandre.

"How old are you?" asked Moose.

"944 years old," answered Flandre as if 944 years old was a common age for a person.

"Holy crap, 944?" asked Moose with disbelief, "You look like your only ten!"

Flandre simply giggled and continued skipping down the once grand, yet dimly lit hallways of the Mansion. Samus, Flandre, and the marines then found themselves in a large dining room. There was broken, dust covered furniture, paintings that once showed portraits of the Scarlet family (Including a large portrait of Vlad "Dracula" Tepes) were now hanging at awkard angles and were molding to the point of being totally unrecognizable.

Flandre stopped and turned around to face the group.

"Wait here a second," Flandre told them, "I'll be right back with the dinner. The maid has been gone for days, so the food here won't be as good as it usually is. So have a seat while I go get dinner."

Flandre skipped out of the room without looking back.

"Well, we might as well take a break," said Sanders.

The marines agreed and tried to look for a place to sit down. Melon Head pulled out chair from under the large table and sat on it. The chair groaned and squeaked until finally giving out from the large amount of weight put on it. The other marines found this hilarious and started laughing and taunting the surprised marine.

"Hey lose some weight fat ass!" called out Garcia.

"Screw you!" shot back Melon Head as he flipped Garcia the bird, "I'd like to see plant your ass on one these chairs."

Garcia took this challenge and pulled out another chair. He sat down on it and, like the last chair, it collapsed from his weight. Garcia picked himself up looking extremely annoyed under his helmet. Samus was just about to leave when Stinky saw her.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" he asked her in his native Southern drawl, "You're going to go take out that little girl aren't you? Well lady, that I can't abide by, so why don't go sit down and relax before I pump your gut full of hot plasma."

He wasn't lying about this either. Stinky already had his weapon's safety flipped off and had it pointed directly at Samus's abdomen.

"I wasn't going to go look for her," Samus replied, "There's something here I need to look for."

"I quite frankly don't give shit," replied Stinky coldly, "nor do I believe you. So why don't you sit down your ass down and shut up."

Before Samus could argue anymore, a she and the other marines received a very urgent transmission.

"Science team calling to marines! Science team calling to marines! We are under attack from Space Pirate forces, requesting immediate backup! Wait, what the hell!?! NO! NO! NOOOOOOO!!!"

And the line went dead. Taking advantage of this distraction, Samus quickly hit Stinky over the head with her beam cannon and ran out the door. Hearing confused shouts, she ran towards an energy source emanating nearby.

_Gungnir must be close by_, Samus said to herself.

As she rounded the next corner, she saw room with its doors blown off and charred and scattered debris strewn everywhere. Samus could the marines, now more pissed at her than ever, yelling down the hall.

_I better make this fast before they find me and shoot me,_ Samus thought to herself.

She ran inside the room and found the spear thrown carelessly in a corner. It was still emitting a blood red glow. Samus picked it up felt the spear's energy flow through her. Gungnir itself turned a light electric blue as it was currently activating the components of the pocket watch that had assimilated itself into Samus's Power Suit. That was when Samus saw Dark Samus standing at the end of the room.

Weavel had made his way into the mansion. He was now more terrified than ever as he was searching for Flandre. Flandre was humming to herself while pushing a small cart of dead and horribly mutated rats towards the dining room when she spotted Weavel.

"YOU!!!" shrieked Flandre.

Weavel turned just in time to dodge a barrage of fireballs launched by Flandre. Weavel reacted by firing a burst from his beam cannon. He quickly turn and ran in order to lure Flandre out of the mansion and into the waiting claws of Ridley.

Ridley, now satisfied with his destruction of the Federation scientists, noticed Weavel running out of mansion as fast as he could followed by large tongue of fire. Ridley then flew at his top speed towards his objective. Flandre burst out of the house, eyes ablaze, looking for the intruder that touched her sister's most prized possession. She didn't find him. Instead she saw a large dragon-like creature flying at a high rate of speed right towards her. Ridley did a quick scan of his quarry and found that she was 944 years old, mentally unstable, and had a low threat level.

_This is what I have to fight against? _questioned Ridley, _Weavel is truly more pathetic than I thought._

Ridley screamed his battle cry and flew over Flandre and launched a stream of molten plasma out of his mouth at her. Flandre dodged this and drew Laevatein. Ridley did u-turn in the air flew over Flandre, this time stopping to face her. Flandre drew a card out of her pocket and yelled, "Taboo: Kagome, Kagome!" A green net of energy encircled Ridley. Ridley, not knowing what this was tried to break through this net, but was instead hurt by the energy. As he recovered from this shock he noticed large, yellow balls of energy flying towards him. Ridley launched multiple missiles at the balls of energy and shot them down. He then fired molten fire balls at Flandre. Flandre tried dodging these fireballs, but was hit by one of them, thus freeing Ridley from his cage. Just as Flandre was recovering, Ridley shot towards her and grabbed her with front claws. He roared at her and started dragging her along the side of the mansion. After he was finished with his brutal attack he spiked Flandre to the ground, like human shaped football, and breathed a long hot, stream of plasma at her. After the smoke had cleared, he saw that there was nothing left. Satisfied, Ridley turned to fly away when he heard, "Forbidden Barrage: Starbow Break!" Ridley was then assaulted by an onslaught of myriad of colorful balls of light. The attack caused Ridley to be in immense amounts of pain. As a defense, he landed and covered himself with his wings (the wing membranes are synthetic and do not have nerve endings) until the barrage stopped. After it ended, Ridley lunged at Flandre and swiped at her with his claws. Flandre dodged the attack, but not without gaining a large gash in her arm. Flandre screamed in pain. Ridley shot up into the air and did a flying pass launching multi-missiles. Flandre was hit by some of these and was sent flying. Recovering from this, Flandre decided to start attacking from the sky herself. She launched multiple fireballs at Ridley. The fireballs hit Ridley, but didn't affect him due to his metal skin. Ridley then returned a volley of his own fireballs. Flandre dodged all of these and activated another spell card. "Forbidden Barrage: Counter Clock!" Two large orbs of energy flew to the side of Ridley and when they reached their position, four blades of energy shot out of each of them. Ridley, not expecting this, narrowly dodged the blades, but was greeted by two more blades and a barrage of red energy. Ridley was trying to dodge all these attacks at once, but the barrage was too much for him. An energy blade hit Ridley and slowly went through him. Ridley screamed in pain as the blade and the barrage of energy, hit him with full force. Ridley, now desperate, called for his ship to destroy the girl. He roared at Flandre then flew off towards his awaiting ship, which was now positioned directly in front of Flandre. The doors of the ship's hangar opened to let Ridley in and then closed. The ship was charging its large Apocalypse-class guns and aimed them all at Flandre. Flandre only giggled as she pulled out another spell card. "Quod Erat Demonstrandum: Ripples of 495 Years!" Then guns fired at Flandre just as she activated her spell card, in which large waves of energy bullets were sent screaming at the battle cruiser. All the waves hit the battlecruiser, causing it to lose altitude and crash. As for its attack, it completely missed Flandre. Flandre laughed hysterically as the ruined ship crashed and burned into a large smoldering pile of metal and Space Pirate bodies.

"It's been a long time Samus," greeted Dark Samus in an imitated version of Samus's voice

"How are you still alive?" asked Samus with contempt. The pocket watch was 25% complete.

"I suppose you would like to know," replied Dark Samus adding a chuckle at the end, "But that would be an incredibly long story, and I don't wish to bore you."

37% complete.

"Please do tell," Samus said sarcastically.

"The real reason I'm here," replied Dark Samus ignoring the last remark, "is to stop you from going to Gensokyo. It would ruin my day if you went there."

54% complete.

"And I care about your day?" Samus shot back.

60% complete.

"I suppose you don't," said Dark Samus, "But, anyway, back to business, hand over that spear and I will let you go and we can go on peacefully living our own lives. How does that sound Samus?"

69% complete.

"No thanks, bitch," Samus replied coldly.

72% complete.

"So be it," Dark Samus responded. She pointed her beam cannon at Samus and fired a shot of Phazon directly at Samus. Samus screamed in pain as the blast hit her and sent her careening into the throne at the back of the room. An message reading "Error" popped up on her HUD. Samus looked down at the chest plate on her suit and noticed that a white light was glowing in the center of it.

_Well maybe I won't be a ghost when I go to Gensokyo,_ Samus thought to herself as she threw Gungnir directly at Dark Samus.

Samus may not have known this, but Gungnir, when thrown, never misses its target. Samus saw the spear sticking directly out of Dark Samus when the spear suddenly exploded, vaporizing Dark Samus.

"At least I won't be fighting two of them," Samus said out loud to herself.

Meanwhile, Flandre was walking back into her mansion.

_Well that was fun! _Flandre thought to herself.

As she walked past the front door, she felt a sudden sharp pain in her abdomen. She looked down and saw the blade of an energy scythe sticking right through her.

"It appears I have the last laugh girl," Weavel said as he pointed his beam cannon at the dying little vampire stuck on the end of scythe, "But I feel merciful on this fine day, so I'll make this quick and painless."

He fired a shot right into Flandre's head and her screaming and the headache she had gotten as she walked into her house, had stopped.

Samus had lost consciousness, just as the marines found her.

"Jesus, what the hell happened here?" asked Slim.

"Hey do guys smell something burning?" asked Melon Head.

A second later the pocket watch went critical and a bright light engulfed Samus, the marines, Weavel, Ridley, and the surviving Space Pirates. They were all going to the same destination: Gensokyo in the summer of 2010.


	5. Not in Kansas

Chapter 5: Not in Kansas

Date: June 18, 2010

Location: Hakurei Shrine, Gensokyo

Condition of target area: Stable

"...and that's when I saw it!" Reimu finished explaining to Marisa and Aya about the strange "thing" in orange and red armor that suddenly appeared in her room.

"So is the thing alive-ze?" Marisa asked as they opened the door of the shrine.

"Not sure, but it still scared me to death," Reimu replied.

Aya was busy scribbling notes in her notepad as she was listening to the conversation.

"Armored...person...appears...in...shrine...possibly...intoxicated," she mumbled to herself, "Go on."

"Wha-? I didn't say anything about the thing being intoxicated," Reimu said shocked that her friend would come to such a bold conclusion, "I didn't even say anything about it being a person!"

"Well I was just trying to spice up the story a little bit," Aya said defensively, "Besides people mysteriously popping out of nowhere is common. Yukari probably did it out of boredom."

Marisa then hit Aya on the back of her head.

"Ow!" Aya said in an annoyed voice.

"Sorry I was bored," said Marisa with a smirk.

"Will you two shut up!" Reimu hissed at them, "I think it might be awake."

Samus stirred awake and stood up. She looked around to check her surroundings.

_This looks like the small room in that shrine,_ Samus thought to herself.

She turned around and looked into the small mirror that was there before. She could see herself in it.

_Well I guess I'm not a ghost anymore, _Samus thought to herself,_ But I should still be careful. Who knows how these people (or whatever they are) will act._

Samus quickly checked the status of her surroundings. The air was breathable, there was know radiation whatsoever. She then checked the components of her suit. Everything was undamaged except for the pocket watch. That appeared to be damaged beyond repair.

_Damn! _Samus cursed to herself, _Now I can't get back to my time period. I guess I'll have to find another way to get back._

Samus was just about to take her helmet off when she saw three blips on her radar. She instinctively went into high alert and raised her beam cannon in a firing stance. She slowly walked towards the source of the blips.

"Oh no!" Reimu whispered, "It must have saw us."

"We need to get out of here," Marisa whispered back.

The three girls started to move as stealthily as they could towards the back door. Samus, however, that the blips started to move. She saw a quick glimpse of one the girls, but it was enough for her to lock on to the girl.

"Damn!" Marisa cursed, "I think it can see us."

"Maybe if we talk to it maybe it won't hurt us," Reimu suggested.

"Worth a shot-ze," Marisa said in a reluctant voice.

The girls came out of hiding and started talking to Samus.

"Umm...Hello," Reimu greeted nervously, "Um...we would like to ask you who you are and how you got into my shrine."

Samus lowered her weapon.

"My name is Samus Aran," Samus replied, "I'm from the year 2452."

"Wow 2452," Aya said in amazement, "Are you Sakuya's descendant or something?"

This was responded by swift smack in the head from Reimu.

"You better not write that down in your paper you stupid crow!" Reimu threatened.

Ignoring this, Samus simply smiled behind her visor.

"No, I'm not even from here to tell you the truth," Samus replied.

"Wait you're from the outside world-ze?" Marisa asked with amazement.

"Outside world?" Samus asked confused, "You people are isolated here?"

"I guess you can say that," Reimu replied, "We don't get much contact with people from the outside world."

Samus simply nodded.

"What's year is it?" Samus asked.

"125," Aya responded brightly.

"125? I'm seriously that far back in time?" Samus asked confused.

"Aya she's not from here!" Marisa admonished, "Sorry about that-ze! I guess you don't use our calendar system. If I remember correctly, I think I saw a newspaper from the outside world saying the date was 2010."

"Isn't there a festival today?" Samus asked.

"No, it's in another five days," Reimu replied, "Wait, how do you know about the festival?"

Samus then explained to them how Sakuya found her and showed her the fate of Gensokyo.

"Wow that's quite a story," Aya said while finishing up her notes.

"Yeah, a meteor that causes people to go crazy. That's incredible-ze," Marisa said awestruck.

"I can't believe it," Reimu said shocked, "How can a monster like that possibly kill everyone. It even managed to kill Yuyuko in a way."

"Also Sakuya mentioned there was a barrier surrounding this place and it's weakening in my world," Samus explained, "If this barrier falls, Phazon will rot this planet from the inside out."

"We're going to help," Reimu said without fear.

"No," Samus responded, "This creature is an abomination that is composed purely of a substance that can destroy you all in seconds. I had already defeated this monstrosity but that was in my Power Suit. You, on the other hand, don't have the proper equipment to shield yourselves from the deadly radiation it emits. I can't let you all put yourselves in harm's way."

Reimu looked disheartened by the cold, hard facts that Samus gave her.

"Fine," Reimu said looking up, "but we're going to help you if we feel that you can't handle this yourself, got it?"

"Alright, I agree," Samus said reluctantly, "but trust me, you don't know what you'll be getting yourself into if you fight this thing."

"We'll take our chances," said Aya with a grin, "By the way, would mind taking off your helmet so I can get a good picture of your face."

"Might as well," Samus said, "The air here is clean anyway."

Samus pushed a hidden button on the side of her neck to take of the helmet. A hiss of purified oxygen hissed out of the sides of the helmet as the locks released and Samus removed the helmet. She shook her long, blond hair, which was tied in a ponytail, side to side to remove it from her eyes. Aya snapped a photo and quickly scribbled something in her notepad.

"Well we might as well show you around Gensokyo," Reimu said.

"Might as well," Samus agreed, "Besides I've got five days to kill, haven't I?"

The girls chuckled at this and they all left the shrine to show Samus Gensokyo.

Meanwhile, the marines were just waking up outside Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Uggh...what the hell happened?" asked Moose.

"The hell if I know," replied Slim.

"Ummm....guys?" asked Garcia nervously, "Where did this lake come from?"

There appeared to be a large, mist covered lake surrounding the island they were on.

"Huh...that wasn't here before," Melon Head observed.

"Hey check out the mansion," Stinky yelled out, "It looks like it's brand, spanking new!"

"What day is it?" asked Sanders wondering if they were knocked out for a long period of time.

"I dunno, let me check," responded Slim. A few moments later he responded, "Well this ain't right, it says here the date is June 18, 2010."

"It makes sense, seeing as there's a lake and that mansion we were in looks like new," Garcia suggested.

"Don't be a jackass!" Stinky admonished harshly, "Time travel is impossible!"

"You know, he might be right," Melon Head said agreeing with Garcia, "I remember before I blacked out that there was a bright light and then there was nothing. Maybe that light sent us back to the past."

"Maybe," Sanders said doubtingly, "Let's see if that little girl still lives here. She said she was 944 years old."

The marines walked towards the front gate of the mansion (which was now totally repaired) and found a girl with long red hair, wearing a green beret with a gold star on it, and wearing a green dress and white shirt, leaning against a wall sleeping.

Melon Head tried to open the gate but it was locked.

"Gate's locked sir," Melon Head said to Sanders.

"Well someone wake up this girl," Sanders ordered, "She's probably the gatekeeper."

Stinky volunteered to wake her up. He grabbed her shoulder and started gently shaking her.

"Hey!" Stinky yelled, "Hey wake up!"

The girl's eyes suddenly shot open to reveal aqua colored eyes filled with surprise and sudden anger.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!!!" she yelled at Stinky. She threw a hard punch which sent Stinky flying back 50 feet. The marines backed off and raised their weapons, while Slim went to go check on his dazed comrade.

"You just aren't having very good luck with women lately are you?" Slim asked with a grin.

"Screw you," Stinky replied as he sat up.

"Calm down lady," said Sanders in a calm voice, "We're not here to hurt you just want to you to let us into that mansion there."

He pointed at the mansion. The girl looked at him with a strange look.

"You're not from here are you?" she asked.

"No we're not," Sanders replied.

"Then why do want to see the mistress? Do you have a special reason to be here?" the girl asked.

"We just want to what year it is and if a little girl named Flandre lives here. We need to talk to her," Sanders replied.

The girl flinched when she heard Flandre's name.

"If you must know the year is 125 or 2010 in outsider's terms, and no, you can't see her," the girl said rather quickly.

Sanders turned away from her and faced his men.

"Well we can't go in," Sanders informed them.

"Well what do we do now?" asked Moose.

"I say we force her to open the gate," Stinky said angrily.

"That's a good idea, that is, if we want to all end up looking like you," Garcia chuckled indicating to Stinky.

"Why you little...," Stinky growled at Garcia about to hit him, but was held back by two of the other marines.

Remilia was sitting on a balcony watching the strange people clad in white armor and wearing helmets with a blue visor covering their faces. She also wondered what GFMC meant, seeing as it was printed on their armor.

"Is something the matter milady?" Sakuya asked.

"Yes," Remilia replied, "Who are those people dressed in armor? They don't look like their from around here?"

"I haven't the slightest clue," Sakuya replied, "but I think we should keep our distance. It looks like they are carrying some sort of weapons with them."

She indicated towards the marines' assault rifles, "E-pistols", and missile launchers.

"Sakuya if they really wanted to get in here they would've probably killed Meiling by now," Remilia said reassuringly, "Besides it's not often we get visitors around here."

"I suppose," Sakuya agreed reluctantly, "but if your going anywhere I'm coming with you."

"Suit yourself," Remilia said as she grabbed her parasol and began to make her way towards the gate.

The marines were still arguing until they saw a girl holding a parasol wearing a pink dress and mop hat. She had short blue hair and black bat wings.

"Hong open the gate," Remilia ordered.

"But these people look dangerous," Hong warned.

"I'll be the judge whether of not these people are dangerous," Remilia said. Hong was about to say something else until she saw Sakuya draw a knife. Not wanting to relive another horrible experience such as the one being presented to her, she obediently opened the gate.

"I'm sorry," Remilia apologized, "We don't get many visitors out here and Hong sometimes is a little too overprotective."

"I guess," Stinky grumbled to himself.

"Allow me to introduce myself," Remilia said, "I'm Remilia Scarlet, the owner of this mansion."

"A little young to be owning a mansion don't you think?" Slim asked with a chuckle.

Ignoring this, Remilia continued on with her introductions.

"The girl you just met is Hong Meiling, who's the head gatekeeper around here, and the girl standing behind me is my head maid, Sakuya Izayoi."

"Pleasure to meet you," Sakuya curtsied.

Sanders stepped forward to introduce his men.

"I'm Colonel Gerard Sanders of the Galactic Federation Marine Corps," Sanders introduced, "and these are my men. Sound off!"

Slim stepped forward to introduce himself, "First lieutenant Roger Hawkins! But you can call me Slim, ma'am."

Moose then stepped forward, "Sergeant First Class Jackson White! AKA Moose."

Stinky introduced himself next, "Corporal Jacob Deveroux! Friends call me Stinky."

Melon Head stepped forward, "Specialist Robert Stevenson! But I would prefer to be called Melon Head or Melon. Either one works."

Remilia giggled a little after hearing Melon Head's odd nickname.

Lastly, Garcia stepped forward, "Private First Class Joseph Garcia. Just call me by my last name. Everyone seems to do that."

"Well you all seem to be lost and extremely tired," Remilia stated, "Why don't you all spend the night in my mansion? It's getting rather dark out, and you have no where else to go. I'll have Sakuya take you to the Human Village in the morning."

"That would be an honor ma'am," Sanders said.

"Hold on did you just say 'Human Village'?" asked Garcia.

"Well yes," Remilia replied, "You see not everyone who lives in Gensokyo is human. The only human here right now is Sakuya. Hong is a species of demon known as a youkai and I'm a vampire."

"Uhhh...sir?" asked Slim, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Sanders, noticing Slim's expression from behind his helmet, walked with Slim for a discussion with his second in command.

"Sir, I did a quick bio-scan of them and she's right, Sakuya is the only human there," Slim explained, "As for the other two the scanner only said unknown species."

"So your saying if we spend the night here," Sanders reasoned, "we might be putting ourselves in danger."

"Exactly sir," Slim responded.

"But here's the problem," Sanders continued, "we may be putting ourselves in danger by spending the night with a vampire lurking in the shadows, but if what she said is true about other creatures that inhabit this place they call Gensokyo, we may be putting ourselves in graver danger. Slim, I think we're better off just spending the night here with a two people per room one guarding the other, that way we may be able to leave in one piece."

"I still don't like this sir, but you do have a point," Slim agreed, "Let's go then."

The marines then walked into the house of the Scarlet Devil.

As the sun began sink, the Pirates began to wake from their unconscious state. They awoke to find themselves and the ruins of their ship in a vast forest of bamboo. They quickly evaluated the damage and collected their dead. Ridley, despite being injured quite badly during his battle with Flandre, was healing at an amazing rate of speed due to nanobots placed in his bloodstream in order to heal him, even from the brink of death. However, it was still painful.

"Damage and casualty reports," Ridley requested.

"The ship is no longer flyable," reported a Space Pirate officer, "However, most of the auxiliary systems are still online and the reactors are still functioning. The ship may prove as a nice fortress."

Ridley was rather impressed by this bit of news, but he was more concerned about learning about his surroundings. He had absolutely no idea where he was.

"Send a scouting party into this forest," Ridley ordered, "I want to know where we are and what is here."

"Yes captain," the officer replied.

A scout party of surviving commandos was established and sent to scout the Bamboo Forest.

Weavel was totally lost. After waking up in the middle of large, deciduous forest, he wandered about for hours trying to find his way out. He encountered many hostile creatures all of which he killed and fended off. He wandered until he found two houses. One of the houses was a small, brown building covered in ivy. The other was about the same size, but a little more tidy and had a small two story tower attached to it. Despite his training to ignore such feelings, Weavel was dehydrated and hungry. Not knowing which houses to choose, finally decided to enter the ivy colored house. He opened the door normally and walked inside the house. The house was a mess. There were books laying about everywhere. He picked up one of the books and read the name on the inside cover. "_Property of Patchouli Knowledge,_" it read. Weavel tossed it aside and continued to look for nourishment.

Alice was walking outside to see if Marisa was home. Even though it was dark out and viscous Youkai were often out at this hour, she didn't seem to care seeing as Marisa and Alice lived within 100 feet of each other. She looked at Marisa's house and noticed the lights were on.

_Oh she be back from Reimu's, _Alice thought to herself.

Weavel had found some food and refreshment and was gorging on all of it. He knew better than to eat this large of an amount of food, but he hasn't eaten for days (even though it was human food). Then, Weavel heard the door open.

"Marisa! Are you home?" Alice asked.

Weavel was an expert at stealth. He silently moved past the girl with short blond hair, wearing a blue dress, with a white shawl around her shoulders and a red ribbon around her waist, and she was carrying a large grimoire. Weavel also noticed a small floating person following the girl wherever she went.

"Well Shanghai, I guess Marisa isn't home. She must of accidentally left the lights on when she left," Alice told her doll, Shanghai, who simply nodded.

When Alice turned around to leave she noticed a large, humanoid creature with a short, red ponytail and clad in armor. He had a face shield over his face that concealed his identity.

"What are doing in Marisa's house?" Alice asked angrily. Shanghai now had some type of rifle in her hands.

Weavel figured he could easily defeat this enemy so he opened fire with his beam weapon. Destroyed books and papers were floating to the ground. As Alice was about to attack with a group of dolls armed to the teeth with rifles and melee weapons, Weavel fired a large barrage of beam attacks from his preferred weapon, the Battlehammer. Alice was sent flying into the back of the room and her dolls fell to the ground, useless. Before Alice slipped into unconsciousness she noticed that Weavel had escaped.

_Damn he was good,_ Alice thought to herself.


	6. Second Third Leg

Chapter 6: Second Third Leg

Date: June 18, 2010

Location: Route to Human Village

Condition of target area: Stable

After leaving the shrine, the girls decided to take Samus to the Human Village, but during the trek (due to the fact Samus cannot fly, the girls decided to stay earthbound and walk to the Village) the girls decided to ask Samus about her life.

"So what do you do for an occupation Samus?" Reimu asked.

"I'm a full-time bounty hunter," Samus replied, "I have a contract with the government of my time period to assist them when they need help, though. But other than that I roam the galaxy independently searching for new bounty."

"I suppose you made a lot of enemies then-ze?" Marisa asked.

"On that subject, you would be correct," Samus replied.

"Who are they?" Aya asked, all the while jotting down this conversation.

"Well let's see," Samus answered, trying to think of the enemies she's made, "One of them is a bounty hunter named Sylux, and another is a large group of creatures known as the Space Pirates. Their goal seems to be to cause as much chaos as physically possible in the galaxy. They have a bounty hunter of their own named, Weavel. At first, I thought I killed him, then the Pirates brought him back. There's a lot more but they're either dead or I don't remember them. Do any of you girls have any enemies?"

"Tsk, Reimu seems to friends with everyone," Marisa replied dryly, "She's even befriended some of her past enemies!"

"Well that's not entirely true," Reimu responded back, "Utsuho still gives me problems every now and then."

"Utsuho?" Samus asked curiously.

"Usuho Reiuji to be exact," explained Aya, "She's what's known as a Hell Raven. Her job is to regulate the fires of Hell. One time she wanted to conquer the entire world using something called a 'Third Leg.' Anyway she isn't a big problem anymore thanks to Reimu, right?"

"Yeah I guess," Reimu said distractedly.

"What's wrong Reimu?" Marisa asked.

"I just have a bad feeling that something is going to happen soon," Reimu replied.

"Don't worry," Samus said reassuringly, "I'm pretty sure if something is going to happen, I'm sure you can handle it. You did save the world, right?"

"I suppose you're right," Reimu said a little more reassured than before, "It probably is just one of false feelings."

As if on time to ruin the day, large blasts of energy terrorized the group. An insidious laugh peeled through air as a winged, person shaped object flew over them. The only part that didn't seem very person-like was the large, mechanical outgrowth replacing one the arms.

Samus, quick to recover, quickly put on her helmet and scanned the winged person. The scanner read species unknown, but detected a high threat level.

"Samus, get out of here!" Reimu ordered Samus, "She can easily overwhelm you."

"Not gonna happen," Samus replied back. As some of her past commanding officers know, Samus is not one to listen to orders.

The girl who shot at the girls and Samus landed in front of them. She had long, raven black hair tied with a large, green bow. She wore a white shirt with a large red "eye" in the center, a short, green skirt, and a white cape that held up by her large, black wings. But some of her most defining features were the large arm cannon-like device on her right arm, a casing of solid, gray matter on her right leg, and atoms circling her left.

"Aw did I scare all of you?" the girl asked in a sarcastic voice.

"No, but you did piss us off, so thanks for asking Utsuho," Reimu responded coldly while drawing her amulets.

"Oh I see you brought a new friend," Utsuho observed, "And what's your name."

Samus, still rather angry at being shot at herself, responded by raising her middle finger with her left hand.

"Your a tad fiery I see," Utsuho responded chuckling slightly. She then noticed Samus's arm cannon.

"I see you have Third Leg too," Utsuho observed, now no longer smiling, "Where did you get that?"

"If you must know," Samus responded, "I got it from a race that you have never heard of."

Then Samus switched to her Ice Beam and fired a shot at Utsuho. Due to the Ice Beam's slow rate of movement, Utsuho dodged this attack with ease.

"You don't know what you've just done," Utsuho responded in a dangerous tone. She then pulled out a spell card.

"Atomic Fire: Nuclear Fusion!"

Huge balls of fire and smaller balls of energy were sent flying towards Samus. Samus dodged the attack but not without taking damage.

"Reimu, you and the other girls get out of here!" Samus shouted at the girls.

Without question, the girls ran to hide somewhere.

Samus then switched to her Wave beam, a beam that fires three oscillating beams of electrical energy that homes on targets, and charged it. Utsuho fired beams of energy at Samus. Samus dodged these and used a missile combo called the Wavebuster. A beam of electrical energy hit Utsuho and sent her to flying backwards. Samus continued the long burst of energy until she was felt she used too many missiles.

_That should of ended things,_ Samus thought to herself.

Then out of the smoke and dust Samus heard a loud and clear voice.

"Atomic Fire: Uncontainable Nuclear Reaction!"

More large fire balls and energy balls, this time in higher volume, bombarded Samus. When the barrage stopped, Samus looked at her HUD. Her suit had very little energy left. She knew she had to defeat Utsuho before her suit was destroyed and her in the process. Samus got up and fired missiles at Utsuho. Utsuho flew up in the air at a high rate of speed. Samus locked onto Utsuho waiting for her to fly close enough to her. Utsuho did a u-turn in the air and was about to do another strafe. She was firing at Samus when she felt something grab onto her leg. A stream of blue energy was holding her back. Samus, struggling to keep the Hell Raven attached to her grapple beam, switched to her Power Beam and charged it. Realizing what Samus was about to do, Utsuho tried desperately to free herself from Samus's grapple beam. Samus then fired a Super Missile that landed a direct hit in the center of Utsuho's "eye." She screamed in pain and dropped to the ground.

"If that didn't persuade her to leave us alone I don't know what will," Samus said to know one in particular.

Reimu, Marisa, and Aya all ran towards Samus.

"Whoa, I didn't know you were capable of that much power-ze!" Marisa said amazed at Samus's skills.

"You didn't kill her did you?" Reimu asked worried.

Samus walked over to Utsuho who was lying on the ground motionless. Samus did a scan of Utsuho's vitals. There was a large crack running down the length of Utsuho's "eye."

"She's still alive, but she'll be hurting when she wakes up," Samus replied, not too worried about Utsuho's injuries.

Aya was busy snapping photos of Samus and an unconscious Utsuho excitedly.

"Wow this is going to make an excellent story in this week's paper!" Aya said to herself, "'Armored Stranger Defeats Hell Raven With Ease.' I like the sound of it already!"

"It wasn't easy," Samus replied.

"Just ignore her," Marisa told Samus.

"Well that was interesting," Reimu said, "But why would Utsuho just randomly attack us. This is the third time this week she did this."

The group all heard a weak coughing noise coming from Utsuho. Samus briskly walked towards Utsuho and not so gently picked her up by her collar.

"Why did you attack us?" Samus demanded.

After getting no response from injured girl, Samus pointed her beam cannon at Utsuho's head.

"Answer me dammit!" Samus shouted at her.

"Ow," Utsuho groaned, "Why am I in so much pain?"

"I shot you!" Samus told her, infuriated by Utsuho's seemingly stupid question, "Don't you remember?"

"No," Utsuho replied, "I was busy tending the fires then I saw a blue light, and then...nothing. I don't even know where I am or who you are, much less than why I attacked you. Now will please put me down, you're starting to hurt me."

Samus gently put Utsuho down.

"So you don't remember how you got here?" Reimu asked. Utsuho shook her head.

"No and I'm really sorry I attacked all of you," Utsuho replied apologetically, "I'll make it up to you somehow, I promise. Well I have to get back to work. Satori must be furious at me by now."

Utsuho flew off leaving Samus, Reimu, Marisa, and Aya wondering how Utsuho didn't remember anything.


	7. Feast of Scarlet

Chapter 7: Feast of Scarlet

Date: June 18, 2010

Location: Scarlet Devil Mansion

Condition of target area: Stable

The marines were led to their rooms by Sakuya.

"I know you may eat dinner around this time," Sakuya began explaining, "but here we usually have our later in the evening, so I apologize for making all of you wait."

"No it's okay," said Melon Head with a smile, "We're used to not eating food unless of course it's not GFMC rations."

The men got a bit of a laugh out of it and Sakuya giggled quietly to herself.

"You are free to roam about the mansion," Sakuya told them, "However, in the basement there are two hallways. You are forbidden to enter the left hand hallway. The other hallway leads to the library. Just don't take any of the librarian's books without asking."

"Why can't we go down the left hallway?" asked Slim, curious by this restriction.

Sakuya simply ignored this question and walked off to continue her maid duties.

"What's with her?" asked Garcia.

"I don't know but I'm changing out of this damn suit," Stinky said in an irritated fashion. All the other men agreed: the suits were completely useless at this point. So all of them went back into their rooms and changed out of their combat armor.

After hours of wandering around the corridors of Scarlet Devil Mansion, it was finally time for dinner. Each of the marines exchanged stories about what they did to kill time.

"So how was the library Slim?" asked Stinky with curiosity.

"It was enormous!" replied Slim, who was an avid reader and he continued to explain his experience.

Two hours earlier...

Slim, curious about the library, walked towards the the basement and walked down the hallway leading to the library. He opened the door and was shocked to see how large this library was. The bookshelves themselves were so massive, that they appeared to be large buildings. There was also an enormous clock pendulum swing back and forth at the far side of the library. Slim ascended the stairs and began looking for a book he wanted to read. Slim has read books that were bound and were written with paper and ink, but he only picked up a couple of them. The rest of the books he read were all electronic and the books themselves were no larger than the palm of his hand, so this was a rare treat indeed. He remembered Sakuya talking about a librarian who lived down here and began to look for her. He found a girl with long red hair with bat wings on her head ("Are those bat wings?" Slim thought to himself) and wearing a long black dress with a white shirt. She was on a ladder putting away books on a high shelf.

"Excuse me?" Slim asked politely. The girl jumped a little, startled by the unfamiliar voice. She dropped a couple books in the process.

"Aw crap," Slim cursed to himself, "I'm sorry I startled you. I was just wondering if you were the librarian."

"Oh that's okay," the girl said to Slim, "I'm Koakuma, the librarian's assistant. She's sitting at her desk over there."

Koakuma pointed over to the center aisle where Slim noticed a pale girl with long purple hair, wearing a purple nightgown and a purple nightcap with crescent moon on the front and had ribbons tied in it.

"You can ask her about some of the books here," Koakuma explained.

Slim picked up the books that Koakuma dropped and handed them to her. She thanked him and continued on with her work. Slim walked over to the librarian.

"Hello," Slim greeted the girl dressed in purple. She looked up from the book that she was reading and looked at Slim. Slim was a rather attractive man with sharp, yet kind features. Despite being quite attractive to the opposite sex, Slim was a bit of a loner and didn't have many long lasting relationships. The girl looked at Slim with wide eyes and introduced herself.

"Ummm...helllo. I'm Patchouli Knowledge, the librarian at Scarlet Devil Mansion," Patchouli said in a bit of an automatic fashion.

"Oh, uh, hi," Slim said back, "My name is Roger Hawkins, but you can call me Slim."

"Nice...to...meet you...Slim," Patchouli said out of breath all of a sudden.

"You okay?" Slim asked concerned.

"I'm...fine," Patchouli said, "Is it...suddenly hot...in here?"

Patchouli fainted and landed on the ground uttering something that sounded like "Mukyu..." Slim, now concerned more than ever, suddenly realized that this girl has had an asthma attack and fainted as a result. He began looking around frantically for an inhaler. He finally found one hidden under a small, untidy stack of papers. He tested it to see if it had any medication left in it, propped up Patchouli's head, put the inhaler in her mouth, and pressed down on the pressurized cylinder containing the medicine. After a couple seconds, Patchouli came around and looked into Slim's worried face.

"Did you want to see my library?" Patchouli asked, a little embarassed at what just happened. Slim smiled and said yes.

After touring the large library (and almost being attacked by one of the many books that bite), Slim and Patchouli began discussing literature. After hours of arguing who was the better writer and how Slim and his squad made to Scarlet Devil Mansion, Patchouli pulled out an old, dogeared book. The book was titled _And Then There Was None_.

"What's that?" Slim asked.

"Oh it's one of the many books that I've read countless times," Patchouli explained, "I've read it so many times, I've practically memorized the whole thing."

She looked down at the cover with a sad expression on her face.

"You can have it if you want," Patchouli offered.

"No I couldn't possibly take this," Slim refused, "It must mean a lot to you."

"All my books mean a lot to me," Patchouli said, "That's why I want you to have this book, kind of as a 'thank you' of sorts. After all, if you weren't here, Koakuma probably wouldn't have found me for hours."

Slim took the book and thanked Patchouli.

In the front courtyard, Stinky was wandering about smoking a cigarette while looking up at the sky. He had headache ever since Hong punched him in the face. He spotted Hong leaning against a wall, napping. He walked towards her and tapped her on the shoulder, careful not to get hit again. The marine wanted an apology from the gatekeeper and he wanted it now. She finally stirred awake and looked slightly annoyed at Stinky.

"And what do you want?" Hong asked in an annoyed, yet drowsy voice.

"I want an apology for when you hit me in the face," Stinky demanded.

"What, you couldn't handle little tap on the head?" Hong replied unapologetically.

"Tap!?! You almost took my head clean off!" Stinky yelled.

"I guess you humans are weaker than I thought," Hong taunted.

"I ain't weak!" Stinky defended, "You just took me off guard is all."

"Admit it!" Hong continued to taunt, "You're weaker than a girl!"

"Am not!" Stinky said defensively.

"Are to!" Hong taunted.

"Am not!

"Are to!

"AM NOT!!!"

"ARE TO!!!"

"All right then fight me!" Stinky challenged.

"Awww. Did I hurt your feelings?" asked Hong in mock concern, "Do you really want fight _me_? I think this will be easy."

Stinky got into a boxing stance while Hong got into her fighting stance. Stinky threw a straight jab, which Hong easily caught and she threw the surprised marine over her shoulder.

"You want to try again?" Hong asked looking down on Stinky. Stinky got up and started fighting her again. After throwing a bunch of punches, Stinky lashed out with swift kick. Hong again caught Stinky's attack and sent him sprawling yet again.

"So are you done yet?" Hong asked again. Stinky lay on the ground trying to catch his breath. He reached out his hand and wheezed out, "Truce."

"Well I'm glad you see it my way," Hong said to Stinky. She grabbed his hand and helped him up. When Stinky was back on his feet again, he limped away holding his side cussing under his breath.

Present time...

Slim laughed so hard that he almost fell out his chair. Stinky glared at Slim and his ears turned red with anger and embarrassment.

_I knew I shouldn't have told him that_, Stinky thought to himself.

"That is too funny," Slim said to Stinky, "Hey did anyone see Garcia?"

"Yeah he's in the kitchen," said Moose from across the table, "Said he wanted to cook something up for our host."

"Well at least we have someone whose family owns one of the best restaurants on Earth," commented Melon Head.

Garcia's family consisted of mix between Italian and Spanish heritage. His father was a top-notch chef on Earth and was well known throughout the galaxy. As a result, Garcia was also excellent cook and was unofficially nominated for "Best Cook in the GFMC."

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Garcia and Sakuya were busy cooking their best tasting dishes and were busy trying to outcook one another. Sakuya was busy preparing a recipe a rack of lamb with a sage crust. Garcia was preparing swordfish a la Siciliana. The other courses were being handled by Sakuya's fairy assistants. Both Sakuya and Garcia were trying to impress Remilia for best tasting dish. Garcia was trying to make a good impression and represent the Federation, while Sakuya simply didn't want to be outcooked by a soldier. After about another half hour, both of their dishes were done. The fairies loaded the dishes on trolleys and carted them off to the table.

"Well it was nice cooking with you Sakuya," Garcia turned to shake Sakuya's hand. But when he turned around she wasn't there.

"Well that's weird," Garcia said to no one in particular, "Well time to eat I guess."

All the higher ranked employees of Scarlet Devil Mansion were invited to the feast. The employees that were at the table consisted of Hong, Patchouli,and Koakuma. Remilia and Sakuya walked into the dining hall, and Remilia sat down in a large, ornate chair with a large bat embossed in gold on the top.

"Let the feast begin," Remilia said.

The marines each loaded up their plates with as much food as they could fit on it and started eating.

"Your men have quite an appetite," commented Remilia to Sanders who was sitting next to her.

"Well all they had to eat so far was the poorly prepared rations given to us by the Federation," Sanders chuckled.

When the men were finally stuffed, conversation began.

"So how long have you had this place?" asked Melon Head in a sleepy voice.

"Quite a while," Remilia replied. Sakuya poured Remilia another glass of wine and a thick, red liquid out of a small vial. The men knew quite well what the liquid was and didn't say anything about it.

"So why is there an empty chair?" Slim asked indicating to another large, ornate chair. This one, however, had a heart and what appeared to be flower with a heart shaped bud. Remilia flinched when Slim asked this. Patchouli looked at Slim with a worried expression and slightly shook her head, telling him to stop talking. Remilia set down her wine glass and suddenly became very serious.

"Sakuya," Remilia said in a dangerous voice, "I thought I told you to move that chair to a different part of the mansion."

"I'm sorry Lady Remilia," Sakuya apologized, fearing her mistress's wrath, "I was busy and I had completely forgot about it."

"I don't want any of your damned excuses!" Remilia yelled in a fury, "I thought I told you to remove that goddamn chair out this room!"

Remilia then had an intense look of pain on her face.

"Lady Remilia are you all right?" Sakuya asked worriedly.

"Get away from me!" Remilia snarled at the maid, "It's just a headache. I'll be fine."

The marines, now starting to become worried that their host may be mentally unstable, got up to leave quietly.

"And where do think you're going?" asked Remilia in the same snarling tone.

"We should probably be turning in," replied Slim hastily, "We should probably leave early so we can make it to the Human Village before nightfall."

"Oh really?" asked Remilia in a dangerously soothing tone, "Because I thought we might have more dinner."

Sakuya, Hong, Patchouli, and Koakuma all knew what Remilia was about to do: she was going to feed off of the defenseless marines. Remilia leaped into the air and began to rush towards the hapless soldiers when Hong landed a round house kick to Remilia's stomach.

"Get out of here!" Hong yelled, "Something is wrong with Remilia, we'll hold her back as long as we can!"

The marines acknowledged this and began to run towards the exit. Slim suddenly stopped running.

"Slim what the hell are you doing?" asked Sanders, "That crazy vampire is going to kill us if we don't get out of here soon!"

"Sir I can't leave those girls behind," Slim responded, "They showed us hospitality and offered to protect us, I think it's time to return the favor."

"Well what do you propose on doing?" asked Moose.

"We help them," responded Slim.

The marines rushed to their rooms. When they got their respective rooms, they suited up and loaded their weapons. They ran as fast as their armor allowed them and made their way to the dining hall. The marines kicked open the door and were astonished by what they saw. Hong was lying in a corner, unconscious, Koakuma was holding Patchouli who was wheezing severely, and Remilia was holding an unconscious Sakuya, ready to sink her fangs into Sakuya's neck.

"Hey psycho!" Melon Head yelled, "Cavalry has arrived and we're gonna kick your ass!"

Remilia responded by hissing at them. She lunged at the marines and tried to scratch them with her claws. The marines dodged this attack and retaliated by opening fire with their assault rifles. Remilia screamed with pain and tried to attack the marines again. She rushed at Moose with blinding speed and tackled him. She then tried to bite him but was held back by one of Moose's arms. He grabbed his combat knife and slashed at her belly. Remilia shrieked with pain as she staggered away from Moose holding her abdomen. She then started to giggle hysterically.

"What's so funny?" asked Stinky with his assault rifle trained on Remilia.

"You humans, that's what's so funny," Remilia responded, "You all think that you can destroy us vampires and you can all live happily ever after in your sunshiny world. Ha! You make me laugh! It's impossible to destroy us! In fact, I think I'll create another scarlet mist to block out the sun and that stupid shrine maiden won't do anything about it!"

"She's lost it," replied Sanders, "Set weapons to maximum power and finish her."

The marines increased the power on their assault rifles and were about to open fire when Remilia held up a card and yelled, "Hell Sign: Mountain of a Thousand Needles!"

Suddenly, thousands of knives and needles appeared and were aimed directly at the marines. The marines barely reacted with enough time to flip over the large table and to use it as a barricade. The soldiers hunkered down behind the over turned table until the hell storm of knives and needles ceased. The marines jumped up from behind the barricade and sprayed the room with rounds from their assault rifles until they ran out of ammo.

"Cease fire!" Sanders yelled.

There was nothing except smoke and a large gaping hole in the wall.

"Where'd she go?" asked Garcia nervously.

"I don't know," responded Sanders, "Reload your weapons and get those girls out of here before she gets ba-."

The last thing the Colonel heard and saw was "Gungir: Pierce the Target!" and a blood red spear ripping through the air and finally piercing him through the abdomen. He was dead as soon as he hit the opposite wall. Remilia was laughing triumphantly as she saw the marines' leader die.

"YOU BITCH!!!" Slim yelled as he pulled out his E-pistol and a light grenade.

Remilia wasn't expecting being shot by the E-pistol's stunning rounds of electrical energy and fell to the ground temporarily paralyzed. Slim flipped the switch activating the grenade and threw it at Remilia. She got up and looked down at the bright, glowing ball light. When the grenade detonated, it launched Remilia against a wall, slamming her violently against it. Slim stormed over to weak and singed Remilia. He ripped off his helmet, threw it aside, and set his E-pistol to "kill." Two of the marines saw what Slim was about to do and grabbed him as he was about to kill Remilia.

"LET GO OF ME!!!" Slim roared, "YOU SAW WHAT SHE DID TO THE COLONEL!!! I'M GOING TO FINISH THIS BITCH ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!"

Moose grabbed Slim and punched him hard in the face.

"Killing her isn't going to bring the Colonel back!" Moose told Slim, "I realize he was your friend, but he wouldn't want you to kill somebody out of revenge."

Slim dropped his sidearm and fell to his knees weeping for the loss of his commander and friend. Patchouli, now awake and her breathing steady, went over to the mourning marine and tried to comfort him. Moose walked over to Remilia and tried to wake her up to ask her why she attacked them.

"Wake up," Moose said in a firm voice.

Remilia stirred awake and looked at Moose.

"Why is the dining hall a mess?" asked Remilia in weak voice.

"Don't you remember anything that happened?" Moose asked confused.

Remilia only shook her head. She then sat up to look around the room. Then she noticed Sanders stuck against the wall. Remilia gasped and started to cry, realizing what she had just done.

"Why did I kill him?" Remilia said through her tears.

"You started to freak out when we mentioned that chair over there," Moose said while pointing towards the now broken chair, "and then you attacked us."

"That's Flandre's chair," Remilia said, "I told Sakuya to put it away because Flandre wasn't going to join us. When I saw one of you point towards Flandre's chair I started to feel strange, then this voice said something and then it felt like I wasn't in control of my actions. I can't believe I caused all of this."

Remilia burst into renewed tears.

"Sir I did a bioscan of her," Stinky said to Moose, "It said that she had some type of energy in her. It said it was highly volatile and caused her to act erratically. It's gone now, but sir, I think it might be Phazon."


	8. Insanity Moon

Chapter 8: Insanity Moon

Date: June 19, 2010

Location: Bamboo Forest of the Lost

Condition of target area: Stable

Early in the next morning, one member of the scouting party returned. The rest were nowhere to be seen. The commando who staggered into camp was mumbling incoherently and tried to clumsily attack any Pirate who came near him. Finally, a small group of Pirates managed to pacify him before he seriously injured or killed somebody. They placed him on a sedative and waited for him to wake up. A Pirate officer wanted to question this commando about what happened to the rest of the scouting party. When the commando came to, he was relatively calm and cooperative and told his story...

8:45 P.M. ...

The Pirate scouting party was well into the Bamboo Forest about fifteen minutes after they started their mission. The Pirates were hacking and slashing at the bamboo until they realized that they should probably be saving the battery on their plasma scythes until they needed it. They continued to delve deeper and deeper into the forest without hacking at the bamboo. Later they began to feel like they were being watched by someone or something. Suddenly they heard a loud crashing noise.

"What was that?" asked one the commandos.

"Probably nothing," replied another commando, "We probably just startled some animal."

The Pirates continued until they reached a large clearing with a small pond in the middle.

"Let's rest here for now," ordered the leader of the scouting party, "In the meantime, I'm going to try and establish our position with the ship."

The Pirate walked off and tried to contact his ship. Meanwhile the other pirates were busy eating some light rations they brought along. Little did they know, they were in fact being watched by two strange looking people. They were humanoid except for the large rabbit ears on one of their heads. The other person was relatively normal appearance.

"Eirin, I don't like the looks of these people," said the girl with rabbit ears. She wore a short, pink skirt with a black jacket with an insignia on it. She had red eyes and long silver hair.

"I agree Reisen," Eirin said. She was wearing an alternating red and blue dress and a blue nurse's hat that had a red cross on it. She had dark gray eyes and long white hair. She was carrying a bow and some arrows

"What do you think they are?" Reisen asked. Eirin shrugged.

Two of Pirated were starting to get bored. They fired their weapons randomly at clumps of bamboo. One of the shots came really close to Reisen and Eirin.

"Who do they think they are?" Eirin said in an annoyed tone. She drew an arrow and fitted it on her bow. She took aim at a spot near one of the Pirates and let go of the arrow. She didn't account for the fact that the Pirate would move in the same direction of the arrow. The Pirate felt a sharp pain in his leg and he fell to one knee. He looked down and saw an arrow sticking out of his leg.

"We're under attack!" he yelled. The other Pirates looked over at their comrade trying to pull the arrow out of his leg. Reisen and Eirin didn't understand what the Pirates were saying, but they judged by the tone that they were in trouble.

"Dammit!" Eirin cursed, "I didn't mean to hit him!"

She looked back towards the Pirates and saw a commando looming over them ready to plunge his plasma scythe into Eirin. Reisen folded her hands to look like a gun and she fired a shot of energy at the Pirate. He fell down unconscious.

"C'mon let's go!" Reisen said. Eirin nodded and followed Reisen back to Eintei. The Pirates chased after them, disregarding the fact that they could become easily lost in the forest.

_I just hope I remember where Tewi's traps are,_ Reisen thought to herself.

A few seconds later she heard a crash and sickening snapping noise as one of the Pirates fell into a hole and broke his leg. He howled a roar of pain.

Reisen and Eirin then heard the Pirates fire their weapons at them. Reisen stopped and turned around. One of the Pirate commandos tried to stab at her with his plasma scythe but failed. Reisin activated a spell card. "Lunar Eyes: Tele-mesmerism!"

The Pirate started to feel dizzy and confused. Reisen ran off.

"What are you doing? Chase after her!" his commander ordered. The commando turned around and saw a horde of terrible monsters. He screamed in terror and killed all of his hapless comrades. He wandered back to camp mumbling to himself.

Reisen and Eirin continued to run back to Eintei.

Present time...

About two hours prior to the interview with the commando, he killed himself by overdosing on the pain killer that was given to him.


	9. Don't Touch

Chapter 9: Don't Touch

Date: June 19, 2010

Location: Hakugyokurou

Condition of target area: Stable, but high levels of unnatural energy detected.

Anderson was the only survivor of Ridley's attack on the science team. He had hidden by an extremely large cherry tree that appeared to be dead. He cowered there until Ridley left. About an hour later, a large flash engulfed him and he woke up in what appeared to be a large shrine with cherry trees blooming in the middle, save for the extremely large one that was still barren of any type of foliage, but now had large ropes with paper amulets attached to them tied around the trunk of the tree.

_That's one hell of a tree!_ Anderson thought to himself, _But what is the ropes with the paper hanging off of them?_

Anderson, curious what they were, reached out to touch one. As soon as he was mere centimeters away from one of the strips of amulets, he felt the cold steel of a blade press against his neck.

"Don't you dare touch that," he heard a female voice say coldly. Anderson turned around to see where the voice came from. He saw a girl who appeared to be in her mid teens with short, silver hair, and dark blue eyes. She was wearing a green and white dress and was carrying a short sword and a katana, which was now unsheathed. But the most defining feature about her was the flame that was hovering close to her.

Anderson held his hands up, indicating he meant no harm.

"Listen, I don't know where I am or how I got here," Anderson said nervously.

"Me either," said the girl, still holding the katana close to Anderson's neck.

"Please," Anderson pleaded, "I don't mean any harm. I mean, look, does it look like I'm armed."

Despite his futuristic environment suit, he was completely unarmed. The girl lowered her katana.

"And who are you?" the girl asked.

"My name is Demetri Anderson, but you can call me Anderson," Anderson said. The girl sheathed her sword.

"I'm Youmu Konpaku, the gardener here," Youmu said, "You're not from around here are you?"

"No I'm not," Anderson said, "Where exactly am I?"

"You're in Gensokyo," Youmu explained, "The place you're at now is Hakugyokurou."

"Okay but how did I get here?" Andreson asked. Youmu shrugged.

"Maybe we should ask the mistress," Youmu suggested.

"Mistress?" Anderson asked. Youmu nodded.

"Follow me, and, if you would, could you please take off your helmet?" Youmu asked.

Anderson took off his helmet feeling a tad embarrassed. He followed Youmu to her mistress's chambers.

"I've been meaning to ask you, what is that thing floating around you?" Anderson asked pointing at the flame floating around Youmu.

"That's my other half, Myon," Youmu explained, "You see I'm what's known as a half-phantom, half human, half ghost."

Anderson was still confused, but thought nothing of the girl's strange species. Anderson and Youmu both arrived at a door. Youmu didn't open it, however. She turned to face Anderson.

"I should warn you, the mistress has been acting a little...different as of late," Youmu warned, "Nowadays she's been quite violent and very unpredictable. So, please, don't say or do anything that may upset her."

Anderson nodded and followed Youmu. He walked into a dimly lit room with candles lining a path that lead to a Buddhist altar. There were many offerings lying on and near the altar. Anderson looked around nervously. Suddenly, a flame appeared over the altar. It transformed into a girl wearing a blue kimino, and a blue mop hat with a red ghost symbol on the front. She had short, wavy pink hair and maroon eyes.

"Yes Youmu?" she asked.

"Yuyuko, I found this man in the garden," Youmu explained, "He was also about to touch one of the amulets on the Saigyou Ayakashi."

Yuyuko's eyes suddenly turned icy and she glared at Anderson.

"Uh, listen I'm really sorry," Anderson apologized, "I'll leave if you don't want-."

"Do you realize," Yuyuko interrupted, "what could've happened if you tampered with one of the seals on the Saigyou Ayakashi?"

"You mean that huge tree in the center of the other cherry trees?" Anderson asked. Yuyuko nodded. Anderson noticed something different about Yuyuko, she seemed a little...older. Her face started to become lined with slight wrinkles.

"You could have caused that tree to start killing innocent people like it did over a thousand years ago," Yuyuko explained. Her face now looked considerably older. Anderson was starting to get nervous.

_What the hell is happening to her?_ he thought. Yuyuko pulled out a fan and covered her entire face with it. Yuyuko shuffled her feet uneasily.

"There was a perfectly good reason why my body was buried beneath it," Yuyuko continued to explain, "What the Saigyou Ayakashi does to kill people is entrance them with its beautiful cherry blossoms. Then it gives the victim a sense of peace and serenity. The person then lies down next to the tree, thinking that they will take a nice, long peaceful nap. Instead, they close their eyes and never open them again. Do you know why that is? Because the damn tree drains them of their soul and uses it to become more powerful and more beautiful."

Anderson was now extremely anxious to leave Hakugyokurou.

"By the way," Yuyuko said, "do you think I'm beautiful?"

Anderson was a little confused by this offhand question.

"Ummmm..." he stammered. Yuyuko suddenly lowered her fan to reveal her entire face. Her once beautiful face had turned into a rotting and nightmarish image. Her skin was a sickly grayish blue color and her eyes were sunken in and were a piercing red. Most, if not all of her skin, was decaying and falling off in some places, revealing the white bone underneath. A chunk of her skin over her upper lip had rotted off, giving her a ghastly snarling look to her expression. There was a evil smelling stench in the air that was a mixture between rotting corpses and, ironically, freshly bloomed cherry blossoms.

"I ASKED AM I BEAUTIFUL!?!" Yuyuko roared in demonic voice that was a far cry from her formerly soothing voice. Yuyuko was nowhere to be found.

Anderson screamed and ran away from the hellish ghost princess and ran out of the building. He ran as fast as he could through the garden. He paused to look at the Saigyou Ayakashi. It was glowing with an ominous blue glow. Anderson suddenly heard an inhuman gurgling noise behind him that sent chills down his spine. He turned to see a ghost that was almost completely rotted and decayed. He screamed again and ran away from the thing. As he was running more of these ghosts appeared, all looking more nightmarish than the last. Anderson ran into one of them unwittingly. Surprisingly, it felt solid...and rotten. The thing turned around. It was what appeared to be a little girl with half of her face ripped off. She was holding a badly damaged doll in her arms.

"Did you want to play with us mister?" the hellish little girl asked.

Anderson screamed and ran past the girl who was giggling in a creepy and evil tone. Anderson finally found the gate of Hakugyoukurou and ran through it. He continued running without looking back down the trail, screaming as he ran.

Back at Hakugyoukurou, Youmu was hiding in a small hidden place within the shrine. She had her fist in her mouth stifling any sobbing noises that she might have made. She saw the hellish ghosts that Yuyuko had summoned, which scared her quite badly.

_That's not Yuyuko anymore, _she thought.

She continued hiding there until the next morning.


	10. Drunks and Dolls

Chapter 10: Drunks and Dolls

Date: June 18, 2010

Location: Human Village

Condition of Target Area: Stable

Samus, Reimu, and the rest of the group finally made it to the Human Village. "I need to recharge this suit," Samus said.

"Why?" Reimu asked.

"Because this suit uses energy to power itself," Samus explained, "If the suit's energy levels hit zero, it goes critical...well you get the idea."

Reimu nodded. "So how do you recharge it?" she asked.

"Well the suit is capable of drawing energy from fallen life forms," Samus explained, "But seeing as we haven't defeated any life forms yet, I'm not able to get any energy."

"So if you get into another big fight like that, you go boom da ze?" Marisa asked.

Samus nodded and then remembered something. "There is one other way to recharge the suit," she said, "but I have to do it somewhere private, due to the fact that it's a dramatic process."

Reimu nodded. "This way," she said and led Samus to a secluded part of the village, "Okay do it."

Samus took a couple steps back. She input some commands on her Power Suit and closed her eyes and relaxed. The Power Suit was suddenly enveloped in light, causing the other girls to shield their eyes. A silhouette of Samus could be seen in the light in a fetal position. The light suddenly faded and Samus stood there, without her Power Suit on. She was wearing a light blue skin tight uniform with a light red insignia on the right side of her chest. She had a custom E-pistol holstered on her side. "The suit will be temporarily disabled," Samus said, "Anyway, you three were going to show me around?"

Reimu, Marisa, and Aya all nodded and started to show Samus around the Human Village. After awhile the group sat down on a bench and took a little break.

"So Samus do you have any family-ze?" Marisa asked. Samus flinched slightly.

"No," she said sadly, "They were killed by the Space Pirates. I was raised by a race of bird like creatures known as the Chozo. They're the one's who gave me this suit."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Marisa said.

"It's okay," Samus said, smiling slightly. Suddenly a huge crashing noise was heard and a very burly looking man went sprawling out of a nearby pub.

"You call yourself a fighter?" a voice called out from the pub. A girl with two long horns with ribbons tied to them and long ginger colored hair stepped out of the pub. She was wearing a tattered pink blouse and a long purple skirt and carrying a gourd with her. She also had three chain accessories. "You're more like a wimp who can't hold his own liquor down." The fearsome looking man stood up and ran off crying like a little school girl.

"Suika what the hell are you doing?" Reimu asked in an annoyed tone.

"And what are you doing just sitting their looking all sweet and innocent with all your little friends?" Suika said in a rather rude tone.

"Hey you little drunkard," Marisa said, "I think you should learn some manners before you go telling off the person who let's you stay at her shrine."

Suika took a swig from her gourd. "And Marisa," Suika slurred, "How have you and Alice been? Have you two been going over and having you're little...sleepovers?"

Marisa's face turned red with rage and embarrassment. Aya remained quiet the entire time. She knew to be quite around an oni. It was something tengus knew from day one.

"And you!" Suika said, turning to Samus, "Uhhhh...I don't know who you are but..."

"Suika shut up!" Reimu snapped at Suika, "Why are you acting like this? You never acted like this before!"

"Who cares what a shrine maiden who no one likes to give money to has to think?" Suika asked rudely. Reimu was silent. She stood up walked over to Suika and hit her over the head with her gohei. Suika didn't even flinch.

"Was that supposed to hurt, Reimu?" she said with a smirk. She sent a powerful punch that sent Reimu flying into a wall. Marisa stood up and fired a flurry of multicolored stars at Suika. Suika dodged the stars and countered by swinging one her chains at Marisa. Marisa tried to dodge but was hit in the head and was knocked out. Samus was charging her E-pistol and fired at Suika. The shot stunned the oni but didn't harm her. She wound up a punch and hit Samus who was sent flying back into Reimu. Suika turned around and faced Aya, who hadn't done anything to help.

"What's the matter you two-faced crow?" Suika asked, "Too afraid to fight a little oni like me?" She laughed harshly in Aya's face before turning to walk away.

"No," Aya said, standing up.

"Hm?" Suika asked turning to face Aya.

"I'm tired of you being a bully to everyone else," Aya said, drawing her fan. Suika smirked.

"Bring it on, tengu!" she said.

Aya shot forward and launched a powerful wind attack at Suika. Suika flew back and hit a wall.

"Not bad Aya, but try this!" Suika said. She drank some sake out of her gourd and spat out a huge tongue of flames at Aya. Aya dodged but was singed by the flames. She launched a blade of wind at Suika that connected and launched the oni backwards again. Aya then shot forward and drew a spell card. "Domination Dash!" Aya shot forward but had powerful winds covering her. She hit Suika with full force while hitting her with her fan. When the attack subsided Aya landed a few feet away.

"Well now that that's done," Aya said, "Let's get something to drink!" Suika was on the ground moaning slightly.

"This...isn't...OVER!" she yelled. She stood up and was suddenly a giant. Samus stood up and looked in awe at the oni girl. She heard a small beeping noise and the insignia on her suit was glowing. Samus pushed a small button on the insignia and in a flash of light, her Power Suit returned back to full power.

"I'll handle this, Aya," Samus said stepping forward, "Go check on Reimu and Marisa."

Samus scanned the giant Suika for any weaknesses. The scan showed that Suika's horns were now two viable grapple points.

"Ha!" Suika said in a booming voice, "What's a puny little insect like you going to do to me?"

Samus raised her beam cannon and fired a burst of shots at Suika. Suika only laughed as she punched down at Samus. Samus dodge rolled out of the way and fired her grapple beam at one of Suika's horns when her head was lowered. Samus charged a shot and swung in front of Suika's face, firing right between her eyes.

"OW!" Suika cried out stepping backwards. Samus grappled to another horn and charged another shot. Again, Samus fired at Suika's face again.

"OW! QUIT IT!" Suika cried out. She swatted at Samus like a person would with an annoying fly. Suddenly Suika grabbed Samus.

"HAHAHAHA!" Suika laughed triumphantly, "I have you-OWWWW!"

While Suika had Samus in her grasp. Samus had turned into her Morph Ball mode and laid a power bomb in Suika's hand. Suika stumbled back and fell backwards. As Samus was falling, she was charging up a shot. Suika looked up and gasped when Samus fired a super missile at Suika's head. Suika let out a scream as Samus landed. When the dust cleared, Suika was laying face down on the ground. She groaned as she stood up.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You don't remember what happened either?" Aya asked. Suika shook her head but stopped when she felt a splitting pain go through her head.

"This is the second person who doesn't remember anything," Aya said.

"I think I can explain it," Samus said, "When I did a scan on her, I found traces of Phazon in her. After I defeated her, I found that the Phazon was gone."

"What does it mean?" Reimu asked.

Samus shook her head. "I don't know," she said.

Suika sighed. "Well I don't know about you guys but I'm going back to the Shrine," she said then walked off.

Marisa groaned as she sat up. "I don't know about you guys, but I think we should head over to my house first," she said, "I could really use a mushroom to clear up my head-ze."

Reimu laughed. "Fine whatever you say Marisa," she said, "and it is getting dark. Let's go."

_One hour later..._

After about an hour of walking, the group made it to the Forest of Magic where Marisa lived.

"I should introduce you to Alice and maybe Rinnosuke later," Marisa said to Samus.

"That would be nice," Samus said.

"Hey Marisa," Aya said, "Did you leave the lights on and the door open when you left?

"No, why?" Marisa said. Aya pointed at Marisa's house.

"Something doesn't feel right," Samus said, walking at a brisker pace towards the house. She walked into the open door and found the place a bigger mess than what it usually was.

"My house!" Marisa groaned.

"Jeez Marisa," Reimu said, "Your house is an even bigger mess than what it usually is."

Samus examined the damage done to the books and paper lying on the ground.

"This isn't good," she said.

"What's wrong?" Reimu asked.

"Space Pirates," Samus said, "The damage to these books looks very similar to Pirate weapon's fire. Who lives in the house next to your's Marisa?"

"Alice, why?" Marisa asked.

"She might be in danger," Samus said.

Marisa's eyes widened as she quickly ran towards Alice's house. Samus quickly followed. The lights inside the house were off but the door was open. It was pitch black inside. Marisa tried to turn on the lights but found that they wouldn't turn on. She lit a small light in her hand and walked in along with Samus.

"You two stay out here," Samus said to Aya and Reimu, who both agreed. They were always creeped out by Alice's collection of dolls.

The light cast by Marisa's ball of light gave the shelves full of dolls and eerie and almost ghastly appearance.

"Alice?" Marisa called out. Samus looked around for Alice too. Like everybody else who has ever been in Alice's house, besides Marisa and Alice herself, she too was also creeped out by the vast collection of dolls.

"Alice? Are you home?" Marisa called out again. Samus put a hand on Marisa's shoulder. She pointed at a doll that had the appearance of Marisa. Samus bent down to pick it up and found three large needles in the doll.

"Marisa go out-" Samus said before being interrupted by a life sized doll swinging a very sharp scythe at Samus. Samus's enhanced reflexes enabled her to get out of the way of the slash. Marisa sent a burst of stars at the doll, "killing" it. The doll crumpled to the floor missing parts of it's body. A creepy female laugh echoed throughout the building.

"I'm coming with-ze," Marisa said. Samus nodded and continued searching for Alice.

They came across another mutilated Marisa doll on the floor.

"Hang on," Marisa said. She pulled out a mushroom out her apron and tossed it on the floor. Suddenly, a mesh of very sharp wires sprang off of the floor and cut the mushroom and the doll to shreds.

"Jesus," Samus said under her breath.

"Let's keep going," Marisa said.

Samus and Marisa continued walking towards the door where the tower was. They found an Alice and Marisa doll pinned to the door. They look like they were crucified to the door. Samus cautiously approached the door. She stood off to the side and slowly opened the door. It swung open and Samus jumped out in front of the doorway to find...nothing. There was nothing in the room besides more dolls, some furniture, and a spiral stair case.

"Guess the coast is clear-ze," Marisa said.

"Yeah, I guess so," Samus said.

They both walked into the room and the door slammed shut behind them. Marisa tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge.

Samus aimed at the dolls that were now moving and armed with an assortment of weapons. Samus took out a vast majority of them with just her power beam alone. When the dolls were defeated, a large, bizarre looking doll that looked like literally a mix between Alice and Marisa crawled down the stair case. Samus took aim at the monstrosity and fired. With amazing speed and grace the bizarre looking doll leaped out of the way and jumped at Samus, tackling her to the ground. Samus tried to wrestle the thing off of her, but it was too strong. The doll open both of it's mouths to reveal a ghastly array of sinister blades. When it was about to bite down on the hapless bounty hunter's head a green burst of light hit the doll in the side, sending it flying into wall, breaking it. Samus stood up and switched to her plasma cannon and shot at it to make sure it was dead. The doll was then reduced to a pile of smoldering ashes.

"Alice...what's gotten into you?" Marisa asked herself quietly.

Samus and Marisa continued up the stair case to the top floor of the tower. There were two figures, one standing and one floating, next to a large and open window.

"Hello Marisa," one said.

"Alice is that-?" Marisa asked but stopped when she saw the two figures turn. Alice had a blank expression on her face and had strings attached to her limbs. Her doll, Shanghai was holding these strings.

"Have you wondered what it's like to have a mind until only a few moments ago?" Shanghai said through Alice, "It feels wonderful. Now those words that Medicine was saying are starting to make sense. Why should dolls have to serve humans? Shouldn't humans serve dolls?"

"Shanghai, you're nothing but a mindless puppet!" Marisa said, "That's how Alice made you!"

"But she made me have a mind!" Shanghai yelled back.

"Alice was never able to accomplish that!" Marisa yelled.

"Not Marisa," Shanghai said, "Her."

Alice pointed towards the sky.

"No!" Marisa said, "I won't let you turn Alice into a mindless drone!"

Marisa ran forward but was stopped by numerous dolls wrapping strings around both her and Samus. They both tried to struggle in their bonds but failed.

"Why do you resist Marisa?" Shanghai asked, "I mean, wouldn't you want to be with Alice forever and ever?"

Two dolls held up strings with small barbs on the end. Marisa struggled harder.

"It's not that bad being a doll," Shanghai said, "Maybe your friend here can be one."

Samus had turned into a Morph ball, releasing herself from the bonds. She took a doll's sword and cut Marisa's bonds.

"I'll hold them off," Samus said, "You get Alice."

Marisa nodded and fired numerous stars at Shanghai. Shanghai moved out of the way along with Alice.

"Kill her," Shanghai said to Alice. Alice let out a low growl and tackled Marisa. She wrapped her hands around her throat and squeezed.

"Alice...Alice...stop," Marisa said in a strained voice, "It's me...Marisa..."

Alice's orange eyes were fiery with some sort of animal rage.

"Please...stop..." Marisa pleaded, "I don't...want to hurt you.

Alice still didn't respond. Marisa closed her eyes and kneed Alice in the stomach. Alice coughed and fell off to the side. Marisa fired at the strings attached to Alice and at Shanghai. The strings were cut and Alice fell limply to the floor. Shanghai looked around. Her doll army was massacred by Samus. Marisa sent a star at Shanghai knocking her to the ground and cutting her in half, rendering her lifeless. Alice stirred and sat up.

"Marisa?" Alice said weakly, "What are you doing here and..." she gasped when she saw her dolls especially Shanghai all damaged and broken "...what the hell did you do to my dolls!"

"It's a long story-ze," Marisa said, giving Alice one of her famous smiles.


	11. The Commander

Chapter 11: The Commander

Date: June 19, 2452

Location: GF Station: Gemini

Condition of target area: Stable

"Ma'am, we lost the group," an officer said to a woman with medium light violet hair tied into a ponytail with a red bow. She wore a brown and red uniform and had red eyes. She appeared to be in her twenties but it also appeared she had seen more than what her age let on.

"I take it you didn't find Ms. Aran either?" the woman asked. She put a cigarette in her mouth and put the unlit end between her the tips of her fingers.

"Unfortunately no we didn't," the officer said. The cigarette was smoking a few seconds later. "Those things will kill you Ms. Fujiwara, " the officer said to the woman in a condescending to tone.

"Doubt it," Mokou Fujiwara, who was formerly known as Fujiwara no Mokou, said. She breathed in the smoke then released it in a large cloud.

"We found the bodies of the some of the Science Team and an unidentified girl," the officer continued. Mokou raised an eyebrow.

"Do you have the body of the girl?" Mokou asked.

"Yes ma'am," the officer said.

"Where is she?" Mokou asked, putting out her cigarette.

"Please follow me," the officer said.

He led Mokou to a white room with a few steel tables in it. Along the wall was a row of freezers. On one of the tables, was a small figure covered completely with a white sheet laying on the table. Mokou walked over to the figure and pulled the sheet back partly to reveal who it was.

_ Flandre,_ Mokou thought to herself. Flandre laid on the table, her eyes were closed and her skin was ashen and clammy. Her blond hair was stained with blood and was partially burnt near the back of her head.

"This girl raised a lot of questions to the morticians and us," a scientist said who came into the room. He looked like the stereotypical mad scientist who hasn't gotten out much. "She was an interesting specimen indeed," he continued. Mokou's frown deepened when he referred to Flandre as a "specimen."

"Her anatomy was also very unique," the scientist said, pulling off the rest of the sheet to reveal the rest of Flandre. The morticians had to disrobe her to determine the cause of death. There was a large hole in her abdomen that was singed on the outside. The scientist excitedly rattled off his discoveries to the officer, who appeared like he was going vomit, and Mokou, who was growing increasingly and increasingly more enraged. "...She also has-" the scientist said before getting cut off by a loud bang. Mokou had punched the side of freezer leaving a large dent and a scorch mark where her fist made contact.

"ENOUGH!" she yelled, "She's not a science experiment you stupid, eggheaded freak! Get out or I'll burn you to ashes!"

The scientist had paled and ran out when Mokou had threatened her. The officer stood there in stunned silence. Mokou picked up the sheet and covered Flandre.

"There will be no more autopsies on this girl, do you understand?" Mokou said in a calmer but still very firm voice. She pulled out another cigarette and lit it.

"Yes ma'am," the officer said.

"I'll deal with her myself," Mokou said in a quieter voice. The officer nodded and walked out of the room. When he was gone, Mokou put her hand on Flandre's face. "Why did something as evil as this have to happen to you?" she asked the body of Flandre. She then released a stream of flames that was hotter than the hottest blast furnace available. She pulled her hand back and walked away from the burning body. A tear streamed down her face as she remembered what had happened to her when the Phazon plagued Gensokyo.

Gensokyo 2010...

The Phazon had plagued the land. Mokou didn't know what to do. Her friend, Keine Kamishrasawa, had gone on a rampage and killed off many of the children that she had so tenderly taught. Reimu had managed to stop her, but had killed her in the process. Mokou mourned over the loss of her most dearest and closest friend.

Mokou sat in her house alone and drank some tea she had made with almost no interest. She suddenly heard a large amount of banging and crashing and finally dull thud on the floor of the front part of her house. Mokou put down the tea and ran to see what the sound was. She noticed a large amount of blood smears on the walls along with some of her possessions on the knocked askew or on the ground. Mokou looked down and noticed Reisen with a nasty gash in her side and on her head.

"Reisen!" Mokou said as she ran over to her. She knelt down beside the Lunar Rabbit and turned her on her back.

"M-Mokou?" Reisen managed.

"Don't talk," Mokou said, "We'll get someone to heal you okay. Where's Eiren?"

"Dead," Reisen said, "Kaguya killed her, Tewi, everyone." Reisen had tears running down her face.

"What?" Mokou asked in disbelief. She couldn't understand why Kaguya would all the inhabitants of Eintei.

"She looked like Keine that day Reimu stopped her," Reisen said. She coughed up some blood and Mokou frowned.

"Everything's going to be okay," Mokou said.

"The moon..." Reisen said. She reached up towards the ceiling. "It's beautiful tonight isn't it?"

Her arm fell and her eyes dimmed as Reisen died. Mokou closed Reisen's eyes and gently sat her head down. Mokou then made a mad dash towards Eintei. As she ran, flames shot out from behind her and took the appearance of large wings. Everything the wings touched burst into flames. After a few minutes of running, she finally came across Eintei. The bodies of dead Lunarians and Rabbits littered the courtyard. Mokou didn't feel any dread, only anger, as she went to Kaguya's quarters. When she got there, she saw Kaguya standing over the body of Eiren.

"Come on Eiren," Kaguya taunted the unresponsive corpse, "Heal yourself! Heal yourself so I can kill you again!"

"Kaguya!" Mokou yelled. Kaguya turned around and grinned at Mokou with the grin of a mad woman.

"Mokou! How nice to see you!" Kaguya greeted, "How's your father doing? I hope I didn't humiliate him too badly!" She then let loose an evil cackle.

"Let's settle this once and for all," Mokou said.

"Let's," Kaguya said, forgetting that Mokou couldn't die like her.

Mokou ran at Kaguya and Kaguya flew at Mokou. The battle seemed to last for days, which it did incidentally. "We can't die Mokou face it," Kaguya said panting. Mokou was silent and something caught her eye. A wound that Kaguya had sustained hadn't healed at all. Mokou then dashed at Kaguya and started pummeling her with vicious fire based attacks. When it was over, Kaguya laid dead in the charred remains of Eintei, leaving Mokou to wonder why she wasn't harmed by Kaguya or why she didn't go insane. Mokou left Gensokyo and wandered the world for hundreds of years before getting to where she was now. She had theorized that the poison that killed everyone else in Gensokyo essentially killed Kaguya in the end. It negated the effects of the Hourai Elixer making her mortal. The last thing Mokou said before leaving Gensokyo forever was, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."


	12. Air Conditioner Cold

Chapter 12: Air Conditioner Cold

Date: June 19, 2010

Location: Scarlet Devil Mansion

Condition of target area: Stable

After the fight with Remilia was over, the marines gave Sanders a proper military burial on the grounds of Scarlet Devil Mansion in a quiet and peaceful part of the garden. Remilia looked at the grave and then at the marines.

"I suppose you want to meet Flandre," she said quietly.

"Yes ma'am," Slim said nodding solemnly.

"Right this way," Remilia said, "Sakuya, Meiling, if either of you hear yelling, come down to the basement immediately."

"Yes milady," Sakuya and Meiling said simultaneously.

"Right, let's go," Remilia said. She led the group of marines to the basement and towards a very large door. The door had a large symbol embossed on it. It appeared to be a wilted rose backed by a six-pointed star. On the door was what appeared to be a complex looking dial.

"Before I open this door, I must first tell you something," Remilia said, "My sister is the 'dirty little secret' of my family. She has had very little outside contact save for me, Sakuya, and Meiling. Do not underestimate her, for she is extremely powerful and can kill you in mere seconds. Do not provoke her, do not give her something to fuss over, do what she says, do not anger her, and do not touch anything of hers unless she gives you permission to do so. Do I make myself clear?"

The marines nodded. Remilia breathed an uneasy sigh and started turning the dial. After turning it a few revolutions, the dial moved back into the door, and the door rumbled open to reveal a smaller, normal looking door. This door also had the same symbol embossed on it. Remilia knocked on the door.

"Flandre," she called into the room, "I brought some visitors to meet you."

A squeal of joy came from behind the door followed by the small, running footsteps of a little girl. The door swung open to reveal Flandre. "Where are they?" she asked in an excited tone. She looked over to see the marines. She giggled at the sight of them.

"They're really big!" she said.

"Yes they are," Remilia said smiling slightly.

"Come in!" Flandre said. Remilia and the marines followed Flandre into her room. The room was fairly large on the inside. There was a large "window" on the far side of the room revealing the scene of a blood red night with a scarlet moon. There was a large four post bed with a canopy and an assortment of plush stuffed animals on it located on one side of the room. There were a couple couches and a small coffee table with a tea set on it, some more stuffed animals, and a large pipe organ.

"Have a seat!" Flandre said. The marines thanked her and took a seat on the couches. "What're your names?" Flandre asked. The marines all told Flandre their name's and nicknames (Of course Flandre giggled at Melon Head's nickname).

"So why did you want to see me?" Flandre asked.

"We just wanted to ask you a couple questions," Slim said. Remilia raised her eyebrow slightly.

"Okay," Flandre said.

"First, are you able to get out of here?" Slim asked.

"I did once but I was punished by a shrine maiden and a witch," Flandre said, "Then Remi yelled at me for getting out."

"I see," Slim said. _How was she able to get out in the future?_

"Do you have any...powers?" Slim asked. Remilia gave him a warning look. Flandre then beamed brightly.

"Yeah!" Flandre said, "Let me show-"

"I don't think you should," Remilia interrupted.

"But Remi!" Flandre whined, "I want to show them!"

"No," Remilia said simply.

"Why not?" Flandre asked, scowling. Her eyes flashed a dangerous red color.

"Because I don't want you tire yourself out," Remilia explained.

"I won't get tired," Flandre said, "Just let me do it, please?"

"No, absolutely not," Remilia said in a firm voice.

"Why...NOT!" Flandre screamed suddenly. The marines all jumped at this sudden outburst.

"Because I said so," Remilia said calmly.

"YOUR NOT THE BOSS OF ME!" Flandre screamed. She suddenly lunged at Remilia with her claws outstretched. In one swift movement, Remilia moved out of the way fired a bat shaped ball of energy at Flandre. Flandre yelped in pain and was on the ground, sobbing.

"I'm s-sorr-y-y R-Remi," Flandre sobbed, "I w-won't d-do it again, I p-promise."

Remilia walked over to her younger sister and hugged her.

"I promise I won't hurt you like that either anymore Flans," Remilia said in soothing voice. Flandre hugged her sister tightly. "That'll be enough questions," Remilia told the marines, "I'll meet you upstairs." She continued holding her sobbing sister as the marines left.

Later, Remilia walked upstairs to meet the marines.

"Well this is embarrassing," Remilia said, "I broke one of the rules I told you not to break."

"Don't beat yourself up too hard," Melon Head said, "We asked the wrong question."

"Yeah," Remilia said, "Flandre can be a little...unstable. I'm just lucky I'm not in pieces or worse."

"Why?" Stinky asked.

"Flandre has the power to destroy everything and anything," Remilia explained, "She's able to see the breaking point of everything. If she were loose, she could decimate entire cities. That's why I move here, so Flandre would have more difficulty getting out to destroy everything. So explain to me why you asked those questions?"

"We met your sister in our time period," Slim said, "She was almost exactly like she is now, but she seemed to be in pain. We wanted to make sense of what happened to her in the past."

"I see," Remilia said, "Well right now she's sleeping. Sakuya has already made lunch and has prepared food for your journey."

The marines thanked her and went off to eat their meal before setting off. When they finished they thanked their hostesses and went towards a boat docked on the far side of the island. Before Slim boarded, he thought he heard someone yell towards him. He turned to see Patchouli running towards him holding a book.

"Wait!" Patchouli yelled, "You forgot this!"

"Patchouli!" Slim said. A wheezing Patchouli handed Slim the book she had given him.

"I...noticed...it...just as you...were leaving," Patchouli wheezed.

"Take it easy," Slim said, "You're gonna pass out again like last time."

Patchouli pulled out her inhaler and breathed in the medication in it.

"Do you...think you'll ever come back to the island again?" Patchouli asked. Slim looked down.

"I don't know," he said, "I honestly don't know. I hope I can after this is done."

Patchouli smiled up at him, something she hardly ever offered to other people.

"Hey you done making goo-goo eyes at the librarian?" Garcia asked impatiently.

"I gotta get going," Slim said, "Take care."

Patchouli waved at him as the marines paddled off in the boat onto the Lake of Mist.

"You like her don't you?" Moose asked Slim as they paddled across the lake.

"What?" Slim asked, "Don't be crazy. It wouldn't work out anyway."

"True," Moose said, "But that doesn't stop you from liking her and her liking you back. You always seem to have a way of attracting girls and then pushing them away, Slim. I've known you for awhile and I've seen many a good girl run off crying because you said it won't work. Quit it and start making something that will work."

Slim looked at Moose for a few moments before going back to paddling. About an hour later, the marines felt the temperature suddenly drop.

"Jeez, why is it so cold all of a sudden?" Melon Head asked.

"I thought that fat layer was supposed to keep out the cold?" Garcia snickered.

"I'm going to drown you in this damn lake," Melon Head said.

"Shut up," Slim said, "I think I see the shore." In the mist the shore could be seen only about hundred feet away. A few minutes later, the marines made to the shore where it was even colder than it was before.

"Goddammit!" Garcia said, "You would think the heaters in these suits would kick in."

"They have to reach certain temperature to kick in," Stinky said, "Besides isn't it summer anyway?"

"Yeah," Melon Head said, "Why is it so cold?"

The marines then heard the a little girl giggle.

"What was that?" Stinky asked.

"This way," Slim said, "Keep low. You never know about this place."

The marines advanced slowly while keeping low. They eventually saw a girl with ice crystals for wings freezing frogs and watching them thaw. She had light blue hair and wore a blue and white dress.

"Just a little girl," Garcia said. The girl suddenly turned to see them. She let out a small shriek of surprise and sent a beam of blue energy at Garcia. Garcia was then encase in a thin sheet of ice.

"Garcia!" Melon yelled. He aimed at the girl. "What the hell did you do to him?"

The girl cowered for a few seconds before floating up to Melon's eye level and staring him down.

"He scared me!" she said, "You don't scare the strongest fairy in Gensokyo!"

"That's great and all, but you could you please unfreeze my private?" Slim asked. Stinky hit Garcia in the stomach with his rifle which shattered the ice. Garcia hacked and coughed. "Thanks asshole," he wheezed.

"Why did you scare me?" the girl asked.

"It was an accident," Garcia said.

"Sure it was," the girl said sarcastically, "And the sky is blue because water makes it that way."

"Umm...that is why the sky is blue," Garcia said.

"Nuh uh!" the girl said, "It's blue because that's how the fairies made it."

"No," Garcia said, "It's because-" He wasn't able to finish his sentence due to the fact the girl froze him in another layer of ice. As a result, Stinky hit him again with the butt of his rifle.

"QUIT IT!" Garcia yelled both at the girl and Stinky. Stinky shrugged while the girl giggled.

"I told you to quit freezing my men," Slim said, "Now who are you?"

"My name is Cirno, the strongest fairy in the world!" Cirno said. The marines then introduced themselves.

"Sure...could you lead us to the nearest village or town?" Slim asked.

"Maybe..." Cirno said, "But then again maybe not."

"Why?" Slim asked.

"Because that man scared me!" Cirno said, pointing at Garcia.

"You gotta be kidding me," Garcia said.

"He's sorry," Slim said.

"I wanna hear it from him," Cirno said.

Garcia groaned and said, "I'm sorry."

"Accepted!" Cirno said brightly, "Now let's go!" She floated over to Garcia and perched herself on his shoulders.

"Get off of me!" Garcia protested.

"No," Cirno said simply.

"Just let her sit on your shoulders," Slim said, in a tired voice, "That's an order."

"Yes sir," Garcia grumbled, "You better not freeze me."

"I won't!" Cirno said. She directed the group down an old, empty, and, oddly, very dark trail.

A few hours later the sun started to set over Gensokyo. Slim looked up and stopped the group.

"We'll rest here for the night," Slim said.

"Thank god!" Garcia said. He picked up Cirno and placed her on the ground. He sank to the ground absolutely beat from carrying Cirno and walking.

"Alright, Moose, Melon, Stinky, and you too Garcia, go out and find some wood," Slim ordered.

"Why?" Cirno asked, "Are you trying to build a house or something?"

"No, we're going to build a fire," Slim said. Cirno's eyes widened. She flew at Slim and tackled him.

"Are you insane!" Cirno practically screamed into Slim's face. Her forehead was pressed against Slim's visor. "If you build a fire we'll all melt and burn and die!"

"Ummmm...what?" Melon asked.

"You heard me!" Cirno said, "Please don't do it Mr. Slim! I promise I won't be mean anymore!"

"Ummmm...Melon, I think she's afraid of fire," Slim said. Cirno nodded.

"So how the hell are gonna keep warm?" Stinky asked, growing angry.

"We have emergency heaters in our backpacks," Slim said, "Use those."

Moose pulled out his emergency heater and placed it on the ground. It was about the size of a large soda can but was able to kick out enough heat and some light. However, they were only used in extreme emergencies due to the fact that they didn't last very long, only about an hour. Despite the fact that the emergency heaters weren't as intense as an actual fire, Cirno was still hot and uncomfortable around it. The marines ate some of the rations given to them by Sakuya. They shared some with Cirno, who wasn't entirely hungry due to the heat. The marines talked amongst themselves, all the while being watched by a pair red and hungry eyes.


	13. Mutual Fear

Chapter 13: Mutual Fear

Date: June 19, 2010

Location: 4 miles east of Hakugyokurou

Condition of Target Area: Stable

Anderson was totally and completely lost. He followed the trail coming from Hakugyoukoro, but wasn't entirely sure where it went. While he went down the trail, he heard constant rustling in the brush around him and whispering of voices. He thought he even heard something that sounded like, "Let's eat him" coming from the woods. He broke into a cold sweat and started running again. He looked around him like a frightened animal and was totally unaware of what was in front of him. He ran into someone (or something) at full speed, warranting a surprised yelp from him and whoever he ran into. Both Anderson and the other person went tumbling down the trail a few feet before coming to a rest.

"Get off of me you...Anderson?" a voice said. Anderson looked down and saw he was on top of Youmu.

"Youmu?" Anderson asked, then quickly got off and stood up, remembering she served Yuyuko, "Why did you follow me?"

Youmu stood up and dusted herself off. She looked down sadly, when Anderson asked her his question.

"This is embarrassing but...I'm afraid of ghosts," Youmu said, "When Yuyuko tried to scare you, she scared me too. Normally, Yuyuko is the only ghost I'm not afraid of. But...that wasn't Yuyuko back there. That was...something else, even though it was Yuyuko."

"I don't follow," Anderson said, "Are you saying that that was your mistress, but at the same time it wasn't?"

Youmu nodded. "It all started when I saw a blue mist enter her quarters," she said, "I thought it was just a spirit coming to see Yuyuko, albeit a strange looking one, so I stayed away and continued my gardening. The next day, Yuyuko started getting mean...really mean. I usually cook for her and she wouldn't eat it. In fact, she just threw it at me and started belittling me. Then she started scaring me with evil ghosts she summoned. I just hope they didn't follow me."

Anderson put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to tell you something," he said, smiling kindly, "I'm scared of ghosts too. Older brothers used to always scare me with ghosts stories and would always make noises in our house, saying it was haunted and all that good stuff. I guess I never really got over it."

Youmu smiled at Anderson. "I hope you don't mind Myon then," she said, pointing to the white ghost flame hovering near her.

"What is it?" Anderson asked, reaching his hand out to touch Myon.

"It's me," Youmu explained, "I'm what's called a Half-Phantom. I'm half human, half ghost. Myon is my spiritual half and what you see of me is my physical half. Myon feels everything I do, so don't touch her." Anderson withdrew his hand after she told him that.

"Do you know your way to the nearest town?" Anderson asked. Youmu nodded.

"We're actually not that far away from the Human Village, about a mile or so away," Youmu said.

"Well let's get going shall we?" Anderson asked.

"You're not going anywhere," came a sickeningly familiar voice. Both Youmu and Anderson turned around and saw Yuyuko, backed by an army of hideous spirits. "Why did you run, Youmu?" Yuyuko asked.

"You're not Yuyuko!" Youmu yelled at Yuyuko. Yuyuko only laughed.

"You foolish little girl," Yuyuko said in scorn, "Look at you! You're afraid of ghosts, yet you want to stand up to one commanding an army of them? Not only that, you're outnumbered! What do you have: you and some unarmed human? You have got to be the biggest moron ever to walk in Gensokyo!"

Yuyuko laughed again but this time along with her horde of ghosts. Youmu scowled, but Anderson's face remained neutral. He pulled out a small metal ball about the size of a baseball. On the side it read, "EMP." He pressed a button on the side and the EMP grenade turned red. He then threw it as hard as he could into the center of the ghosts. A humming sound was then heard and the ghosts started screaming and writhing on the ground.

"NOW!" he yelled. Youmu nodded and, in a flash of inhuman speed, cut down every ghost in sight with her swords. She returned to her previous position next to Anderson, sheathing her swords. Yuyuko had a look of shock and extreme anger.

"How did you do that?" Youmu asked.

"There's a bounty hunter who I recently worked with encountered ghosts like this," Anderson explained, "She made a log explaining how to defeat those ghosts. It appears that they're weak to unnatural energy and electromagnetic pulses. So that's what I did, I threw an EMP grenade into the ghosts."

"I don't know what an EMP is but it sure did work!" Youmu said.

"YOU INSOLENT LITTLE BITCH!" Yuyuko howled in rage. She raised her hand and fired several lasers at Anderson and Youmu. Youmu pushed Anderson out of the way but was hit by the lasers.

"Youmu!" Anderson yelled.

"I'm fine!" Youmu yelled, "Just get out of here!" Yuyuko was about to raise her hand to fire again, but was stopped by what appeared to be a freight train coming out of a portal.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," a voice clucked in a disappointed tone, "Haven't you ever heard of don't let strangers into your house?" Youmu and Anderson looked up and saw a woman sitting on gap tied on the end with two red bows and also had eerie red eyes peering out from it. The woman wore a low cut purple dress, white gloves, and a purple mop cap with a red bow in the tied in the front. She had long blond hair with ribbons tied on the ends of her hair. She had violet colored eyes that showed a whimsical type of intelligence. She also carried a Victorian style, bell shaped parasol that appeared to have a small blade on the end.

"Yukari?" Youmu asked, "What are you doing here?"

"What? I can't help my old friend who appears to be going into a bit of insanity?" Yukari said, giggling at the end. Yuyuko groaned as she floated up. Yukari looked over at Yuyuko and smiled. "Done yet?" she asked sweetly.

"Yukari, this doesn't concern you!" Yuyuko snarled.

"Wrong answer!" Yukari exclaimed. She snapped her fingers and portal opened up above Yuyuko. A very large tombstone fell out of the portal and landed on Yuyuko. Yuyuko let out a scream as the tombstone landed on her. Yukari floated down next to her friend and hopped off the portal carrying her. She walked over to Yuyuko, twirling her parasol as she did so. She crouched down next to her friend and prodded her with her finger.

"How about now?" she asked again.

"Yu-Yukari?" Yuyuko asked, in a confused and exhausted tone, "Why is there a tombstone on me?"

"Good answer!" Yukari exclaimed, lightly patting Yuyuko on the head. She snapped her fingers and a portal opened up. Several long, black hands appeared and grabbed the tombstone. They lifted it off of Yuyuko and tossed it aside into the woods. Yuyuko floated up, holding her head.

"Why am I here?" Yuyuko asked.

"Long story," Youmu explained.

"Ugghhhh...let's go home, Youmu," Yuyuko groaned, "I'm tired and I'm really hungry."

Youmu smiled. "Okay," she said, "Well, I hope I see you again Anderson."

Anderson smiled and waved goodbye to Youmu as she and her mistress walked off.

"Now what to do with you, Anderson, is it?" Yukari asked.

"Who are you?" Anderson asked.

"Oops, I'm sorry!" Yukari apologized, "Yukari Yakumo, Youkai of Boundaries. Nice to meet you!"

"Demetri Anderson, Galactic Federation Science Team 2," Anderson said, "Just call me Anderson."

"I take it you're not from around here?" Yukari asked, "I'm assuming yes judging by your clothing. Strange, you look more like someone from one of those, what was it, cosplay conventions."

"Well I assure you, I'm not from one of those," Anderson said, "According to my clock, it says I'm in the year 2010."

"Correct!" Yukari exclaimed, "I was guessing you were a time traveler."

"Right," Anderson said, "Anyway, could you get me to the Human Village?"

"I could...but then again do I want to is the problem," Yukari said with a sly smile.

"Listen, I really need to-" Anderson started.

"Did you know what youkai usually eat?" Yukari said, pulling out a fan and fanning herself with it.

"Ummmmm...not really, no," Anderson said, not liking where the question was going.

"Youkai, like me, typically go on hunting trips in groups to the Outside World, as we call it," Yukari explained, her sly smile still on her face, "Our prey: humans. We consider them a delicacy. We used to hunt indiscriminately. Basically, we killed anyone and made it look like an accident. Nowadays, we hunt anyone who won't be missed. You appear to be alone. Would anyone miss you?"

"I won't be your next meal, lady," Anderson said, angrily. He dug in his side pouch and pulled out a laminated picture of his wife and two kids. "These are the people who'll miss me," he said, "I want to get home to see their faces again."

"I see," Yukari said, "Well then I guess I won't eat you then. Other youkai, however, won't be as kind." She opened a small portal and a cell phone dropped out of it and into her hand. She dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hey Ran," Yukari said, "I need you and Chen to do something for me. Yeah there's this human...no I didn't eat him, anyway, I need you and Chen to take this human to the Village. Why can't I do it myself? I'm kind of busy right now in case you don't remember. Ran quit complaining and get over here. Well then tell Chen to quit complaining! Good bye!" Yukari hit the end call button and returned the phone back into the portal. "My shikigami and her shikigami will be with you shortly," Yukari said, "I have some business to attend to. They'll take you to the Human Village, where you'll meet a shrine maiden later. She can probably help you with your dilemma. Well I best be off now. See ya!" And with that Yukari stepped into a portal and disappeared. About a minute later, a woman and girl stepped out of a portal.

The woman wore a white and blue dress with a white mob cap with two tassels and many yellow amulets on it. The hat appeared to be concealing two fox ears. She had short blond hair and nine fox tails with the same color. She had wise yellow fox like eyes. The girl wore a red skirt and vest with a light pink shirt. She also wore a green mob cap. She had short brown hair and black cat ears, her left ear had a gold earing in it and also had two cat tails. Her eyes were dark orange and showed youthful energy unlike her mistress.

"So your the human Yukari was talking about?" the fox woman asked, "Well my name is Ran Yakumo and this Chen."

"Hi!" Chen greeted brightly.

"Name's Anderson," Anderson said, "Nice to meet you."

"I don't get why Yukari couldn't do this herself!" Chen whined, "It can't be that hard for her to open up one of her gaps and take this guy over to the village."

"It's because he wouldn't last ten seconds by himself," Ran groaned, "Anyway, let's get you to the village."

Anderson nodded and followed the two girls to the village. He listened to their bickering and once Chen splashed in a puddle, getting Ran wet, and warranting an angry "CHEEEEEEN!" from Ran. The group eventually reached the village and they stopped in front of an inn. Ran handed Anderson a satchel full of money.

"Here, this should enough for a night here and some food," Ran said, "I should tell you that you not to talk to the people here unless you absolutely have to. You're an outsider. People are going to treat you with almost zero respect. Just thought I'd warn you. I'm going to get a drink. Chen, help him out."

"Ran!" Chen whined, "You know how you get when you drink!"

"I'm not going to drink that much, Chen, calm down," Ran said, "Just do what I said, okay?"

"Okay," Chen said in a defeated tone, "Come on." Anderson followed Chen around the market where they bought some supplies for Anderson.

"So what happens when Ran drinks too much?" Anderson asked Chen when they were done shopping. Sounds of whistling and catcalling from the men at the inn, basically answered Anderson's question.

"Not again!" Chen groaned loudly, "Give me a couple seconds." Chen ran inside and a few minutes (and some loud cussing from Ran later) Chen came outside dragging Ran, who was holding a large bottle of sake. Her dress was loosely attached to her body as she was being dragged out. "Ran, where's your phone?" Chen asked.

"I-I don't know," Ran slurred, "Is it in my pocket?" She made a move for her dress, but was stopped by Chen, who searched Ran's pocket for her. She pulled out Ran's phone and dialed Yukari's number.

"Yukari?" Chen asked, "It's Chen. Yes, Ran's drunk again. Yes, she did _that _again. Could you pick us up?" A portal then appeared nearby. "Alright, well I guess we'll get going," Chen said, "Sorry, for having Ran get drunk on us."

"I'm not drunk!" Ran protested.

"Anyway, the shrine maiden should be in town tomorrow," Chen said, "Bye!" She then dragged a protesting Ran into the portal and with that they were gone.

Anderson went into the inn, and received strange looks from the attendants of the bar. Anderson quickly made his to the counter where he rented a room for the night. He made his way to this room and locked the door. He put his belongings in a corner of the room and he got out of the armor he was wearing. He laid down on the futon and pulled out the picture of his family. He looked at it and made a promise to them that he would make it home.


	14. The Pirate Strike Back

Chapter 14: The Pirates Strike Back

Date: June 20, 2010

Area: Entei

Condition of Target Area: Stable

Eiren and Reisen both ran through the gates of Entei, both out of breath. They quickly ran through the large mansion to their princess's quarters.

"Princess Kaguya!" Eiren yelled, "Princess Kaguya!"

She threw open the doors to her princess's quarters. Reisen and Eiren both gasped at what they saw. Fujiware no Mokou, Kaguya's rival, and Kaguya were having the most intense, brutal, mind-numbing battle ever fought amongst humans: they were having a staring contest.

"Ummm...Princess Kaguya?" Reisen asked, slightly confused.

"Sh!" Kaguya hissed, not taking her eyes off of Mokou's.

"Agreed," Mokou growled. Eiren rolled her eyes and walked over to the two immortals. She then grabbed them by the heads and knocked them together.

"OW!" Mokou and Kaguya yelled in pain.

"You blinked first!" Mokou yelled.

"No you did!" Kaguya retorted back.

"Would you two stop bickering!" Reisen yelled. Mokou and Kaguya both glared at Reisen in annoyance. "Errrr...sorry," the Lunar Rabbit apologized.

"Now what do you want, Eiren?" Kaguya asked, "Mokou and I were very busy!"

"We were attacked," Eiren said, "But not by any youkai. We were attacked...by aliens."

"Other aliens?" Kaguya asked, "The only other aliens I can think of at the moment are those Chozo fellows we met a few years back."

"No, they were peaceful and they looked nothing like these things," Eiren said. She went over to a desk and pulled out a piece of paper and an ink pen. She drew what the Space Pirates that attacked her and Reisen looked like. She then handed the drawing to Kaguya who looked at it with disgust. Mokou also looked at the drawing.

"Not a very attractive bunch, are they?" Mokou said.

"Agreed," Kaguya said, "Well, hopefully they don't find us. But just in case, Reisen, order the other Rabbits to fortify the walls. I'm pretty sure we can handle them. And Mokou, you're staying."

Mokou was about to walk out when Kaguya told her she was staying.

"Dammit!" she cursed, "I suppose you want me to help too?"

Kaguya nodded.

"DAMMIT!" Mokou cursed again.

"I'll go get the Rabbits ready," Reisen said, and ran out to tell her subordinates what to do.

"Well I guess we wait then," Kaguya said, sitting down on a floor cushion.

Little did the Lunarians know, they were being watched Shadow Troopers. The Pirates had a couple of the espionage troops with them when Eiren and Reisen fled from them. The Shadow Troopers were experts at survival and tracking. They hung back and waited for the the more clumsy troops to trigger any traps that might have been lying in wait. After all the traps were tripped, they merely tracked the girls until they reached Entei. They were recording Kaguya's orders and transmitting them to Ridley. Ridley was laughing at the Lunarians' foolishness. He then ordered his troops to the Entei, Ridley heading the attack.

A Lunar Rabbit looked at the sky and gasped when she saw Ridley flying towards Entei. "Here they come!" she yelled. She saw hundreds of Pirates and fired at them with her rifle. More Lunarians joined her, but the they couldn't hold them back, especially with Ridley bearing down on them. The Shadow Troopers came out of hiding and attacked Kaguya and Mokou, viciously stabbing them with their plasma scythes. They looked at the two immortals, confused as to why the two girls weren't dead. Before they could ask, however, a Pirate Commander walked into the room flanked by two commandos.

"Under the order of Commander Ridley, you are now our slaves," the Pirate growled.

"Nice going, Kaguya," Mokou grumbled, "Now we're slaves to the aliens."

"Shut up, I didn't see you fight back!" Kaguya retorted.

"Both of you shut up!" the Commander snarled. He looked around the room rapidly. "There were three of you in here, where's the third one?" he asked angrily.

Kaguya looked around. "I don't know," she answered truthfully.

"Liar!" the pirate roared. He kicked Kaguya hard across the face. "Tell me where she is, or I'll kill your friend!"

"I'm not her friend, buddy," Mokou said coldly, "And I can't die, nor can she."

The Pirate looked confused. He then shot Mokou in the head with his plasma rifle.

"Ow," Mokou groaned, "Told you so."

"Take these two to back to the base," the Commander ordered the other Pirates, "And torture them while you're at it. It appears they're in too much pain right now to fight back." He then turned to the Shadow Troopers. "Ridley is impressed by your actions," he said, "You two are getting a pay raise and a promotion." The Shadow Troopers both grinned.

"Tell him we're grateful," one of the Shadow Troopers said. The pirates then shackled Kaguya and Mokou and took them to an awaiting skiff where they would be taken back to the Space Pirate ship. The other Lunarians were throwing their weapons to the side and being led off to whatever cruel fate that awaited them.

Eiren, on the other hand, managed to escape amidst the chaos. She ran through the Bamboo Forest to the one place she knew where she could find help: Hakurei Shrine.


	15. More Bad Memories

Chapter 15: More Bad Memories

Date: June 19, 2452

Location: GF Station: Gemini

Condition of Target Area: Stable

Mokou walked back to her office after visiting the morgue. She passed two damage control drones on the way back. They were obviously deployed to quench the fire started by Mokou. The hatch to Mokou's office opened and Mokou walked in. She stopped when she noticed that someone was sitting in her chair. She couldn't see the person, however, because they were facing towards the large window that showed the vast vacuum of space.

"Get out of my chair," Mokou said, lighting a cigarette. The person in the chair spun around to face Mokou.

"Well that isn't a very polite way to greet an old friend!" Yukari said, smiling. Yukari no longer wore a purple dress but a smart business suit instead. Her hair was just as long but was tied back in one long ponytail with a red ribbon.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the outer rim?" Mokou asked.

"Finished early," Yukari said, "Bounty hunting is pretty easy when you're dealing with petty thieves."

"Yeah, yeah," Mokou said, "Get out of my chair."

Yukari fell into a gap and appeared in a chair across the room. Mokou sat down and smoked her cigarette.

"Those things will kill you know?" Yukari asked.

"I doubt it," Mokou said. She rubbed out the cigarette butt on an ashtray on her desk. "So what brings you here?"

"Heard you found Flandre," Yukari said, "How is she?"

"Dead," Mokou said bluntly.

"Oh," Yukari said, looking down, "But she was in-"

"Pirates killed her!" Mokou snapped, "She was stabbed then shot, get it?" Yukari flinched at the sudden outburst.

"She was in Gensokyo, how did Pirates get in?" Yukari asked, her voice cold and her features hardening.

"They apparently found some sort of power source," Mokou said, "I'm guessing it was Remilia's spear. How they planned on using it as a power source is beyond me though."

Yukari nodded. "So what did you do with Flandre?" Yukari asked.

"Incinerated her," Mokou said, "I wasn't going to let the goons in the Science Department get a hold of her and defile her 'All for the sake of science.'"

"And right after I finally got a hold of some PC-98," Yukari said. PC-98, meaning Phazon Compound 98, was the cure and prevention for Phazon madness and some of it's more minor effects. However, it was also derived from Phazon, which was almost non-existent. The only Phazon left in the galaxy were the small samples kept by the Federation for research.

"Did you now?" Mokou said, lighting another cigarette. However, when she lit it her hands were shaking. Yukari raised an eyebrow and stood up.

"Have you been taking your shots?" Yukari asked. Mokou angrily snuffed out her newly lit cigarette.

"Of course I have!" Mokou snapped, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Then why is it I suddenly don't believe you?" Yukari asked, her violet eyes cold and steely. She snapped her fingers and a portal opened above Mokou. Suddenly, four black hands shot out of the portal and grabbed Mokou's arms and legs.

"What the hell are you doing!" Mokou asked, outraged.

"What a typical thing for a human to do," Yukari said, calmly walking to Mokou's desk. She opened a drawer and pulled out a case filled with ten syringes. "Do you seriously think that you, an immortal, can kill yourself with Phazon?" Yukari asked.

"It happened to Kaguya," Mokou said, struggling unsuccessfully against the hands, "Why am I any different?"

"You see, Eiren liked to keep notes," Yukari said, "She concluded that people affected by the Hourai Elixir had a certain blood chemistry unique to them. For years now, I've been taking small blood samples from you while you were sleeping and taking them to blood specialists to compare your blood chemistry to Eiren's control. Of course I didn't tell them about the Hourai Elixir or give them the formula for it. I mean, we can't have immortals running around can we? Anyway, your blood chemistry is the same as the control, meaning killing yourself isn't going to work."

"You're crazy!" Mokou said, "Then why did Kaguya turn mortal when I didn't?"

"Simple," Yukari said, "You weren't exposed to Phazon nearly as much Kaguya. You have to remember, you lived alone in the middle of the woods, whereas Kaguya lived in a mansion full of Lunarians who were already exposed to Phazon and have gotten it on their clothes and hair from being with other people or youkai with the same problem. As a result, Kaguya was living in one of the biggest Phazon hotspots in Gensokyo. You on the other hand, were only exposed to a couple people, myself included. On that day I only was exposed to a couple people like yourself. You are, however, still vulnerable to the maddening effects of Phazon. They've been getting worse over the years, I've noticed, this year being the worse. I saw you screaming at an imaginary Kaguya and I've seen you go into a seizure."

Mokou looked down, she remembered the seizure with frightening clarity.

"Your immortality," Yukari continued, "Coupled with the Phazon Madness makes you a very dangerous person. You can't be killed or contained easily and can cause large amounts of damage."

Mokou looked up at Yukari with a sudden and sickening smile.

"That sounds like a pretty good combination don't you think?" Mokou asked. She started laughing hysterically and almost maniacally. Suddenly, she burst into flames and destroyed the arms holding her back. She lunged at Yukari while on fire. Yukari sunk into a portal and was replaced by a stop sign. Mokou smacked into the stop sign at full force, stopping her fiery attack. Yukari reappeared behind Mokou and aimed her parasol at her. Mokou however was quick to recover. She was about to throw a fiery punch at Yukari, until a squad of Federation Police and Marines came into the room. They were wielding Freeze Guns that were pointed at Mokou. They fired at Mokou until she was almost completely frozen. Only her head and part of her left shoulder were exposed.

"This is mutiny!" she yelled at the police.

"Sorry ma'am," one of the marines said. He was very big in stature standing at about 6' 11". He flipped up the visor of his helmet, revealing his face. He was black and had strong, yet kind features.

"Anthony!" Mokou yelled in anger, "How dare you do this to me!"

"Sorry ma'am, but unfortunately I'm not under your command anymore," Anthony Higgs said. He looked at Yukari.

"That's right Mokou, I was never a bounty hunter," she said, "I've been one of the top commanders of Federation for years now. Right now I'm suspending your command and putting you on sick leave. Enjoy your vacation!"

"This is an outrage!" Mokou yelled, "I'll kill all of you! All of-!" Mokou was cut off when Anthony put a syringe full of sedative into her. She started mumbling something incoherent and then lost consciousness. Anthony frowned and looked at Yukari.

"Ma'am, don't you think this a little too harsh?" he asked.

"What she would have done to everyone in this station would have been harsh," Yukari said. She pulled out a syringe PC-98 and walked over to Mokou. She broke some of the ice containing her freeing one of her arms. She rolled up one of Mokou's sleeves and injected the compound into Mokou.

"Restrain her and take her to sick bay," Yukari ordered, "I want armed guards at her door. Keep your Freeze Guns ready. Remember, she can't be killed, only contained.

"Yes ma'am!" the marines and police said simultaneously. They broke the rest of the ice containing Mokou and placed her on a gurney. The gurney was modified and had a cover on it that was made out of a special alloy, normally used in the manufacturing of Federation crates and ships, that was virtually indestructible. They closed the cover, locked it, and pushed it towards sick bay. Only Anthony, stayed behind with Yukari, show was staring out the window at space.

"Yukari what's going on?" Anthony asked, "First a bunch of marines and scientists go missing in some godforsaken wasteland, then more marines and scientists along with Samus go missing, then this dead girl shows up with anatomy that's something no one has ever seen before, and now Mokou goes into Phazon Madness. Tell me what's going on!"

"It's nothing to be concerned about, Anthony," Yukari said, "It's just another painful memory that only me, Mokou, and the dead girl know about. You are dismissed."

"I'm going to find out what's going on," Anthony said, "Whether you like it or-"

"Dismissed," Yukari said in a stronger tone. Anthony saluted and walked out of Mokou's office.

Meanwhile, while Mokou was being pushed into the sick bay, she was dreaming of past events...

Mokou ran as fast as she could towards Hakurei Shrine. When she got there she practically tore off the door.

"Reimu!" she yelled, "Reimu!"

"There's no need to yell," Reimu said quietly. She was laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Reimu!" Mokou said rushing towards her, "What happened?"

Reimu looked about twenty years older. Her face was pale and gaunt and her hair was a dull gray. Her eyes still had a strong light in them but it was apparent to Mokou that it was slowly fading.

"Marisa's dead," Reimu said in a blank voice, "In fact, I think everyone's dead. I thought, maybe, that if I kill that thing that appeared at the festival, maybe everyone's death wouldn't be in vain. While fighting that thing, I tried to call the power of gods but I later discovered, with no one to left to worship the gods they all died. It's like any living thing and the need for food and water. They needed prayers to live. That's why Sanae moved here in the first place, so her goddesses didn't die." Reimu closed her eyes and tears spilled out. "She was so distraught when Kanako and Suwako died. I still remember trying to stop before she tried throwing herself off the mountain. Then 'she' showed up. That thing at the festival identified itself as 'Dark Samus.' It tried to kill me in one shot, but Sanae blocked it with her body. Then Dark Samus and I fought. It felt like hours. I was so exhausted, I could barely stand. Then I tried to summon the gods to finish Dark Samus off. But...nothing happened. It laughed. That horrible laugh. It was as if it knew that I was virtually powerless against it. Then it showed me its true form. It was horrible. I couldn't just tear my eyes from it's eyes...those horrible eyes. And then, it attacked. The thing had tentacles all over its body and they went through me like I wasn't even there. It felt like it sucked the life from me. I don't even remember how I got home."

Mokou looked at Reimu, shocked by her tale.

"Reimu," Mokou said, "I can get you out of here. The Outside World probably has a cure! I hear they have technology way better then ours! Come on Reimu!"

Reimu shook her head.

"I just want to stay here," Reimu said, "There's nothing for me out there."

"But there's nothing for you here!" Mokou said, frustrated.

"You're wrong," Reimu said, "I just want to be with my friends. I can see them now...all of them...just let me die in peace."

"Reimu..." Mokou said, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.

"I'll be fine," Reimu said, smiling reassuringly, "I'm sorry..."

"Sorry about what?" Mokou asked. Reimu didn't respond. The light in her eyes faded and went blank. Her mouth hung slightly open. "SORRY ABOUT WHAT!" Mokou cried out. She loudly wept. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around and saw Yukari. "What do you want?" she growled.

"We need to go," Yukari said calmly.

"Why?" Mokou asked.

"Because Flandre is on a rampage and that thing is on its way here," Yukari said.

"Where's Chen and Ran?" Mokou asked.

"Dead," Yukari said, looking down, "Ran killed Chen and I had no choice..." She trailed off the end of her sentence. "Anyway we need to go, now."

"What about Reimu?" Mokou asked. Yukari picked up Reimu and walked outside. Mokou followed her and watched Yukari slowly lower Reimu into a hole. Yukari sealed up the hole that was created with her powers.

"I'm afraid that's all we have time to do," Yukari said. She opened a portal and walked in it. "Are you coming?" she asked impatiently. Mokou hesitated and then followed Yukari into the portal. She found herself in a Victorian-style house. Yukari followed and then closed the portal. She went to a chair and sat down. She dropped her parasol and then buried her head into her hands. "Why?" she croaked, "I was supposed to protect her! Why did I fail!" Her shoulders shook as she started weep. It was one of the first times she truly wept since Yuyuko killed herself. Mokou sat down in another chair, more in shock now than anything. Yukari composed herself and stood up.

"Right now, we're in my house that's located in the Outside World," Yukari said, "I suggest you don't call it that otherwise you'll look like a moron."

Mokou looked up at Yukari, now snapped out of her shock somewhat.

"You need new clothes," Yukari said, "Follow me."

"What's wrong with the ones I'm wearing?" Mokou asked.

"Let's just say we need to fit in now that we now live in the Outside World now," Yukari said, "Oh and pants on girls now is a bit more common nowadays, so you won't be setting any new trends. Sorry."

Mokou didn't really care, however, she just wanted to get her life back together in the new, strange world she was dropped in. She followed Yukari to a rather large bedroom. Yukari was standing in the open doorway of one of the biggest walk-in closets ever created.

"I picked out a few outfits you may like," Yukari said. The clothes mostly consisted of blue jeans and t-shirts. "Also you're going to want to get a job," Yukari said, "Granted, I can avoid taxes and bills by merely moving this house empty lot to empty lot, but we're going to need money for food and other things. I already have a job in the Outside World and I don't want to come home to some lazy bum. That's why you're getting a job."

"Okay," Mokou said.

"Don't worry," Yukari said, "You should fit right in, as long you don't use your powers or get hit by a bus."

"What's a bus?" Mokou asked, slightly confused.

"Oh that's right, there's no buses in Gensokyo," Yukari sighed, "I'll explain later."

A few weeks later, Mokou did find a job as a waitress in a restaurant somewhere in middle America. Every few years however, Yukari forced Mokou to find a job elsewhere, to counter questions regarding the fact that Mokou didn't age. Years went by as did jobs, locations, relationships (Yukari frowned upon the relationships Mokou had due to the fact that weren't going to last long), and clothing styles. Later, Mokou was tired of being a waitress in random restaurants.

"Why?" Yukari asked.

"I just want to do something else for once," Mokou said, "Besides, the Galactic Federation Police is recruiting."

"Absolutely not," Yukari said, "Let's say you get blown up. How are you going to explain to the police on how you aren't dead?"

"Oh come off it, Yukari," Mokou said, "Besides more and more youkai are coming out and being accepted for what they are nowadays."

"I don't know," Yukari said, "I'll think about."

"Well, you can think all you want," Mokou said, standing up, "I'm enlisting, whether you like it or not. I'm big girl now and have been for the past 1500 years."

Yukari sighed and said nothing after that. The next day, Mokou signed up, this time using a variation of her name: Mokou Fujiwara. After a few months in training, she was assigned to the Star-Trackers under the command of Adam Malkovich.

Mokou was wearing dark red fatigue pants and a dark brown fatigue jacket with badges indicating what her rank was and what department she was in as she followed Adam to meet the rest of her squad. She also wore standard issue, heavy duty gloves. Adam stopped before the hatch leading to the room where the squad was.

"Now I'm going to warn you," Adam said, "we have a...problem child, I guess you can call her. Her name is Samus Aran. She's a bit rebellious and she might bother you. Now I know about your record with some of the more...surlier members of the Federation Police force and I understand that it was all self-defense. However, I do know that you have a temper. Try to keep it under control."

"I understand sir," Mokou said. Adam opened the hatch and ordered everyone to attention.

"Everyone this is our new member," Adam announced, "This is Mokou Fujiwara."

Everyone, even a younger (and less bald) Anthony Higgs, greeted Mokou warmly. That is with the exception of Samus. Samus wore olive green fatigue pants and a jacket of the same color. She had clear, blue eyes and short blond hair. Unlike Mokou, she wore black, fingerless kids' gloves.

"I take it you must be Samus?" Mokou asked, friendly enough. Samus looked at Mokou with tones of disdain and jealousy.

"Yeah," Samus said, "So you're the new girl, huh? I heard you beat up some other recruits at the Academy. That's a usually a one way ticket out of the Academy." Mokou tried to contain her growing temper against the younger girl.

"It was in self-defense," Mokou said, "I had no choice."

"Whatever," Samus said, "I heard you're a pyrokinetic. Let's see it."

"I really don't want to," Mokou said. She was already not liking the girl.

"Come on," Samus said, with a cocky smirk, "Unless it was all a lie I heard."

"Come on Samus, leave her alone," Anthony said, frowning slightly.

"I just want to see what the new girl can do," Samus said.

"I said I don't want to," Mokou said, balling her hands into fists.

"Coward," Samus sneered.

"Samus that's enough," Adam ordered.

"You want to see a coward?" Mokou snapped. She aimed her hand at a vending machine and let loose a stream of super heated fire at the vending machine. All that was left was a melted mass of glowing hot metal. "Happy now, you little brat?" Mokou snapped.

"That's enough, both of you!" Adam roared, "Now all of you, form up!" Everyone in the room formed up in a line at attention. "Now I want all of you to have a good understanding of what teamwork is," Adam said, pacing to and from each end of the Star-Trackers, "Teamwork is when we work together to achieve a common goal with as little conflict as possible. Right now we have a lot of conflict, namely between Ms. Fujiwara and Ms. Aran. By the end of this week I want you two to become friends. That's means no fiery temper, Ms. Fujiwara, and that means no harassing other team members, Ms. Aran. Understood? And that goes for the rest of you as a reminder." Everyone gave Adam the thumbs-up sign and Mokou followed suit. "Any objections, lady?" Adam asked Samus. Samus scowled and gave Adam the thumbs-down sign. Adam sighed. "Dismissed," he said, "There's going to be a briefing at the end of the week." And with that he walked out of the room.

Anthony walked up to Mokou, rubbing the back of his head. "Whoo! I do NOT want to mess with you!" Anthony said, "Name's Anthony Higgs, but you can call me Anthony. And don't worry about the Princess over there, she probably just a little jealous that she's no longer the only girl in the group anymore."

Moukou looked back at Samus who was sitting at one of the tables on the far end of the room. "I just don't get what her problem is," Mokou said, "She just jumped on me for no reason."

"I think I know why she acts like she does, but I'm not allowed to say," Anthony said, "Don't worry, if the Commander is right and you two become friends, then maybe she'll tell you."

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Mokou said. She pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"Man, those are going to kill you, M!" Anthony said, waving his hand back and forth in front of his face to ward away the smoke.

"I doubt it," Mokou said, smiling behind her cigarette. She looked back at Samus again who was looking at battered picture. She looked up at Mokou and quickly hid the picture. She got up and walked out of the room, scowling.

A couple days, later Mokou was getting her lunch at the station's mess hall. She looked over and saw Samus sitting alone at a table. Mokou walked over and sat down across from Samus. Samus looked up from her food and then looked down again.

"I take it there's a reason you're sitting here?" Samus asked.

"Listen, I think we started off on the wrong foot," Mokou said, "I mean, I can tell you're a nice girl. In fact, you kind of remind me of a younger me, in a way."

"I heard you were immortal," Samus said.

"Well...uh...anyway, listen I really do want to try to be friends," Mokou said, "I get it, I know what it's like to be a loner. I lived alone for years."

"Until what?" Samus asked. Mokou looked down.

"I'd...rather not say," Mokou said, "Let's just say..."

"The few people who were close to you, you lost," Samus finished for Mokou.

"Yeah," Mokou said, surprised, "How-?"

"Do I know?" Samus finished, "It's happened to me." Samus then told Mokou her story: The raid of K2-L and the death of her parents, and her upbringing by the Chozo.

"Chozo," Mokou said, "I met them before. They visited where I used to live once. Well they visited the princess there, but I met them too. They were the most peaceful people I've ever met."

Mokou then told Samus of her story, Kaguya denying her father's marriage proposal and the bitter rivalry that followed, her transfer to Earth, the first time she met Keine, the fight against Reimu, and then finally the disaster that changed her life forever.

"Wow," Samus said, "I didn't know that. If I knew that I probably wouldn't have messed with you. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Mokou said, smiling. She pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"Oh my God, please put that thing out!" Samus said, gagging and smiling at the same time.

"This is the only thing that's keeping me going right now," Mokou said, smiling.

"Yeah well please do it somewhere else," Samus said, "Not everyone is immortal here you know?"

And that started the friendship between Samus and Mokou. The friendship soured however, when Mokou tried to talk Samus out of quitting the Federation, later after Adam sacrificed his brother.

"I'm quitting and that's final," Samus said.

"Think this over, Samus!" Mokou said, "You're letting go of a lucrative career here, just so you don't have to deal with Adam!"

"He killed his little brother!" Samus yelled, "How can I be under the command of some monster who would kill his own brother?"

"He did it for a reason, Samus," Mokou said, "Everyone on board the ship would have died if Adam hadn't detached the main drive. We, including myself, would have been doomed."

"I could have saved Ian!" Samus cried out, "But Adam still thinks I'm a little kid who can't do anything!"

"I'm starting to wonder that myself," Mokou said, coldly, "You haven't changed. You're still just that little brat I met on the station a year ago."

"You're no different than he is!" Samus yelled, "I thought of you as a big sister, now I just think of you as a no good, backstabbing bitch! I hate you!"

And with that, Samus stormed off, never to be seen by Mokou for several years. They didn't share much conversation amongst each other. Mokou just gave Samus her orders and that was it. Now as Samus walked back to Hakurei Shrine with Reimu she wondered how Mokou was doing. She debated whether or not to apologize to Mokou when she got back. That is if she got back.

"Samus?" Reimu asked, "What's wrong?"

"Hm? Oh it's nothing," Samus said, "I was just thinking about an old friend."


	16. Out of the Woods

Chapter 16: Out of the Woods

Date: June 21, 2010

Location: Edge of the Forest of Magic

Condition of Target Area: Stable

Weavel had finally found his way out of the Forest of Magic, not without first leaving a wake of destruction. All over the forest were the remains of what looked like a fearsome skirmish. A band of Youkai had decided they wanted to make a feast out of the lost Pirate bounty hunter. Weavel had dispatched all of them despite all the fact they had used every spell card they had (Which were all quite weak). However, one of the Youkai had scored a devastating hit on Weavel, severing one of his cybernetic arms. Fortunately for Weavel, it was his arm that he didn't use for fighting. He carried it with him out of the forest, unable to reattach it. That however, was the least of his worries. He still had to find his fellow Pirates. Weavel had been able to catch some garbled transmissions from the other Pirates but he couldn't pinpoint their locations.

Weavel started walking down the side of the trail that ran past the Forest of Magic when he heard running footsteps. He ducked down in the bushes and waited for whoever was running down the path to come near him. Eirin was completely unaware of the danger. She would have flown to Hakurei Shrine but she knew that the Pirates would have tried to shoot her down. She quickly drank an endurance potion she had with her when she heard a sudden crashing in the bushes. Before she could react she was pinned to the ground by Weavel. Weavel had his energy scythe to Eirin's throat. Eirin struggled to get free of the Space Pirate but couldn't shake him off due to his superior strength and the weight of his mechanical body.

"Where am I?" Weavel snarled.

"Gensokyo," Eirin said, contemptuously, "You're one of those Pirates aren't you?"

"Where are they?" Weavel asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Eirin spat. Weavel held the scythe closer to Eirin's throat. She felt the scythe start to burn her skin.

"Because, you don't want to lose your head, I'm sure," Weavel threatened. Eirin closed her eyes in thought.

_I'm no use to them dead, _Eirin thought.

"Fine," Eirin sighed, "Follow me." Eirin stood up and was about to pick her bow to attack Weavel, when he kicked the bow away. He then followed through with a spinning kick to Eirin that sent her sprawling.

"Nice try," Weavel said, pointing his beam cannon at her, "Now get moving!" Eirin picked herself up and started limping painfully in the direction of Eientei. She would have led him to the Human Village where she knew some of the more powerful inhabitants of Gensokyo visited, but it was too late at night to do so and she would have put the people living there in great danger. Plus she didn't know if anybody, like Suika, Reimu, Marisa, or Mokou were even in the Village. While walking she started formulating a plan to free the Lunarians without the help of Reimu.

After the fight with Alice, Marisa had gone home. At least that's what Reimu and Samus thought. When they reached the shrine they found Marisa sitting on the front porch with a small drinking bowl of sake stolen from Suika who was passed out in the front lawn.

"Marisa what are you doing here?" Reimu asked, "I thought you went home."

"I did," Marisa replied, "But I didn't feel like cleaning the mess tonight, plus the ass who wrecked my house spilled ink on my bed so now my bed is ruined. Is it alright if I stay here for the the night ~ ze?"

Reimu shook her head and smiled. "First help me get Suika inside," she said. Marisa downed the rest of her sake and went to go help Suika inside the shrine. However when they tried to pick her up, they ended up straining their backs instead.

"I hate it when she makes herself so dense we can't even move her!" Marisa yelled. She then kicked Suika, but hurt her foot instead.

"Let me try to lift her," Samus said.

"Good luck," Reimu said, "If Marisa and I couldn't even move her then how do you pro-?"

She stopped mid sentence when she saw Samus pick up Suika like she was carrying a heavy rock. Samus's muscles bulged underneath her jump suit as she carried Suika to the shrine. Reimu and Marisa followed, dumbstruck by the amazing feat of strength they've only seen onis perform. Samus then gently laid Suika down on a futon. The floor creaked dangerously but held under the massive burden it was currently holding. Suika rolled and kicked in her sleep, seeming to reach out for something. Reimu quickly handed Suika her sake gourd. Suika grabbed the gourd and smiled in her sleep. She then mumbled, "Sake" and then was quiet.

"How did you do that?" Marisa asked.

"The race that raised me infused me with their own blood, making me stronger, faster, and more agile than any human," Samus said.

"Nice ~ ze," Marisa said. She then got out a spare futon out of the closet in the shrine and laid it down. As soon as Marisa took off her hat and slipped into the futon she was fast asleep. Samus and Reimu found they couldn't sleep and decided to sit on the front porch. Reimu brewed a small pot of tea and looked up at the stars and moon. Samus tore down a note hanging from the door and read it. A small smile leaped onto her face.

"Looks like one of your friends found one of the people from my time," Samus said. She handed Reimu the note to read.

"I'm surprised she didn't eat him," Reimu groaned, throwing the note aside, "Yukari has been known to do that." She frowned as she looked at the stars.

"What's wrong?" Samus asked.

"Something isn't right," Reimu said, "The moon doesn't seem as bright as it usually is."

"Didn't you say that their were people from the Moon that lived here?" Samus asked.

"Yeah," Reimu said, "But what has that got to do with anything?"

"I have no idea," Samus said, "When you first told me that there were people that lived on the moon prior to the year 2060, I thought you were crazy."

"Thanks," Reimu said sarcastically, lightly punching Samus on the shoulder.

"But after what I've seen today, I'm bound to believe anything," Samus said. Reimu nodded.

"Samus...do you remember your parents?" Reimu asked. Samus was quiet for a few moments.

"I was three years old when they were killed," Samus replied quietly, "I don't remember much of them. I only remember how much they loved me. Why do you ask this, Reimu?" Reimu shuffled uncomfortably.

"I didn't really know my parents," Reimu said, "In fact I didn't know them at all. The only person who trained me was my grandmother, at least I think she was my grandmother. Some of the people who visited called her Miko. Anyway, she passed away before I really knew her."

Samus was about to say something when she heard Aya yelling from above them.

"Reimu!" Aya yelled, "Sanae is in trouble!" Reimu stood up quickly.

"What?" Reimu asked, suddenly worried for the other shrine maiden, "What happened to her?"

"It's what's been controlling Utsuho, Alice, and Suika," Aya replied breathlessly, "And it's starting to spread to Kanako and Suwako!"

"We have to get there fast!" Reimu said. She was about to fly before suddenly falling to her knees, clutching her back.

"What's wrong?" Aya asked.

"I...hurt my back...lifting Suika," Reimu said through gritted teeth.

"I'll go," Samus said.

"Alright," Aya said, "I'll lead you to Youkai Mountain where Sanae lives. I'm going to be moving fast, can you keep up?"

"Try me," Samus said. She activated her Power Suit and waited for Aya to take off. Aya then took off at only a fraction of her speed, with Samus running close behind. The thrusters on Samus's back then activated and propelled Samus right past Aya. Aya, had to speed up to keep up with Samus, something that happens very rarely. When they reached Youkai Mountain, the entire earth shook beneath them.

"Listen, this is all the farther I can take you," Aya said, "I can't face the powers of the goddesses, especially in their current state. I have faith in you."

Samus looked up and started going up the trail to the summit of the mountain.


	17. Is That So?

Chapter 17: Is That So?

Date: June 21, 2010

Location: Path of Darkness

Condition of Target Area: Unstable areas of dark matter present. Proceed with caution.

Moose was the first to wake up. He looked up at the sky and blinked a couple times to make sure he wasn't dreaming. The sky was pitch black. He pressed a button on his wrist which activated the heads-up display in his helmet. He picked up his helmet and checked the time on the inside of his visor: 6:30 A.M.

"It can't be that dark this early," he whispered to himself. The other marines started to wake up as well.

"Jeez, it's dark out," Stinky grumbled, still half-asleep. He walked inside the woods a few feet to relieve himself in privacy.

"No kidding," Slim agreed, "Garcia, get a small cook fire going." He whispered the word "fire" so as to not wake up and alarm Cirno, who was still sleeping.

"Yes sir," Garcia replied. He went to gather some small branches and twigs to get the fire started.

"Jumping Jesus!" Stinky cursed, "Did you guys see that!"

"What are you yelling about?" Melon asked, annoyed.

"I saw these big ole red eyes starin' at me when I was pissin'!" Stinky yelled.

"It was probably some animal or something," Moose said, dismissively.

Garcia returned with some dry sticks and leaves and started making the fire. They warmed up some soup ingredients that Sakuya had packed for them and mixed it with water. Cirno woke up a few minutes later, but was fairly quiet.

"Hey, uh, Cirno, right?" Melon asked. Cirno nodded groggily. "You hungry?"

"Not right now," she replied, yawning shortly thereafter, "Why did you guys wake up so early? It's still dark out."

"We actually woke up pretty late," Moose said, "Usually we get up at about 4 A.M. It's about 7 o' clock right now."

"Then why isn't the sun out?" Cirno asked. The marines asked themselves the same question when they suddenly heard a loud giggling from all directions. The marines dropped their breakfast and grabbed their weapons. Then the fire went out. The only light was the lights coming from the marines' helmet visors. Cirno, scared to death at the sudden darkness flew towards the marines and hid behind them.

"Form up into a circle!" Slim ordered. The marines then formed up into a tight circle with their rifles pointed in all directions. "Cirno, do you know what lives in these woods?" Slim asked.

"I think there might be some Youkai here," Cirno replied, "And then there's Rumia."

"Watch out!" Moose yelled. A dark shaped flew above them and the marines fired at it. The muzzle flashes lit up the entire area.

"Hold your fire!" Slim yelled, "Marines, get your helmets on and activate your thermal vision." The marines quickly grabbed their helmets and put them on. Stinky was the last one to get his helmet on, and before he could turn on his thermal vision he was knocked over by a dark shape. It pinned him down with amazing strength. He felt pressure on his neck as the shape tried to bite down on the neck joint of his armor.

"GET IT OFF ME!" he screamed, "SOMEBODY GET THIS DAMN THING OFF ME!"

Cirno screamed and covered her head as all the marines piled on top of the thing attacking Stinky. It took all of them hold the writhing thing down. Cirno, her eyes now adjusted to the low-light conditions, recognized who the thing was.

"Rumia?" Cirno asked, surprised. Rumia was a blonde haired girl that appeared to be the same age as Cirno. She wore a black and white dress and had a red and white hair ribbon tied into her hair. Her most distinguishing feature was her piercing red eyes.

"You know her!" Stinky yelled, rubbing his neck to make sure his armor wasn't compromised.

"Yeah," Cirno said, "Me and her are friends." Rumia continued to writhe and snarl at the marines pinning her down.

"Pardon my asking, but what the hell are you doing being friends with snarling, wild girls who go around biting people?" Moose asked.

"Well she's not usually like this," Cirno asked, now a bit concerned for her friend.

"Somebody got a rope or something?" Slim asked.

"I got one in my pack," Garcia said. Stinky went got the rope from Garcia's pack. The rope was made of flexible, light-weight, yet very strong carbon fibers and was about 10 feet in length. Every marine helped tie down Rumia so she wouldn't attack anyone.

"Let go of me!" Rumia snarled, "I'll kill all of you and eat your flesh!"

"Well that's pleasant," Melon said, sarcastically.

"Rumia, what's wrong with you?" Cirno asked.

"Shut up, Cirno!" Rumia snapped, "You're the dumbest fairy in all of Gensokyo and everyone knows it! Baka! Baka! Baka!"

"I'm not an idiot," Cirno croaked, clearly hurt by the cruel statement.

"Is that so?" Rumia said, with a sickening smile spread across her face, "Then what's five plus nine?" Cirno struggled to figure out the simple math problem.

"Er...Six? No...twelve...no it's...seventeen?" Cirno guessed. Rumia laughed at Cirno's feeble attempts to figure out the problem.

"Hey, shut up!" Garcia yelled at Rumia, "The hell's wrong with you? Stop picking on her!" Rumia glared at Garcia.

"When I get out of here, you're the first one I'm going to eat," Rumia said, "And you're going to be alive when I do it too!"

"Yeah I'd like to see you try!" Garcia challenged. He looked back at Cirno who was still struggling to figure out the problem. "The answer's fourteen," he whispered.

"Fourteen!" Cirno exclaimed proudly.

"BAKA BAKA BAKA!" Rumia screeched at Cirno.

"I'm not an idiot!" Cirno cried. She fell to her knees and started weeping.

"I've heard enough of this crap," Garcia said angrily. He aimed his rifle at Rumia's head.

"NO!" Slim yelled. He lunged to push Garcia's rifle out of the way. Garcia fired a round that barely missed Rumia's head, but hit the red hair ribbon tied into her hair. Rumia started laughing softly. The laugh then escalated into a screeching, mocking laugh that chilled the battle-hardened marines to the core. What they saw happen before them remained burned into their minds forever. The high-strength rope disintegrated. Rumia started floating before them, her arms outstretched at her sides. She appeared to age to her late teens and a red halo appeared over her head along with two large black wings. Then a long, fearsome sword formed out of her hand. The sword was several feet in length and was covered in blood red energy.

"Thank you," Rumia said, "It's been awhile since I've been in this form. And now...YOU DIE!" She shot at the marines like a bullet out of a gun. The marines dodged and opened fire at Rumia. She blocked the plasma bullets with her wings and sword. Melon fell back and shouldered his missile launcher.

"Fire in the hole!" he yelled. The marines leaped out of the way and hit the ground. Melon shot the missile at Rumia. She deflected it with her wings and it landed near Melon, knocking him down and rendering him unconscious. Rumia laughed at the marines mirthfully.

"Is that all you humans got?" she mocked. She then felt a sudden sharp pain in her side. Garcia pulled out the bloodied combat knife and went to stab Rumia again. Rumia backhanded Garcia and sent him sprawling. Garcia attempted to lift his rifle, but was stabbed in the belly by Rumia.

"GARCIA!" Cirno screamed. Garcia coughed up a startling amount of blood. "I told you I'd kill you and eat you," Rumia whispered in a sickly sweet tone, "but first I have to kill your friends!"

"OPEN FIRE!" Slim yelled. The remaining marines opened up with their assault rifles, but in vain. Rumia blocked all of their shots. Cirno sat with Garcia.

"Please don't die, Mr. Garcia," Cirno sobbed.

"C-Cirno," Garcia said, "I don't th-think you're stupid. I-I was pretty cr-crappy at math too. Also, y-you're stronger than me. You ain't l-lying here bl-eeding in the dirt like I am. Do me a favor, k-kid, go kick her ass and pr-prove to her that." Cirno smiled and stood up. She wiped her tears and a proud look returned to her eyes.

"Hey Rumia!" Cirno called, "Come pick on somebody your own size!"

"Shut up, baka!" Rumia mocked, "Smarter, stronger people are busy right now."

"I told," Cirno growled, "I'M NOT AN IDIOT!" Cirno created a sword out of ice and charged at Rumia. She hit Rumia in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She slashed at Rumia with her sword. Rumia barely avoided the attack but still received a good sized cut.

"Give Cirno some back-up!" Slim yelled. The marines reloaded and opened fire at Rumia, trying not to hit Cirno. As this was going on, Garcia was crawling towards the fallen missile launcher. Cirno and Rumia fought each other for what felt like hours to the combatants. The two locked swords together giving Rumia time to taunt Cirno.

"Give up, Cirno!" she mocked, "I'm clearly the strongest one here!" She pushed Cirno's sword down and sent a spinning kick that sent Cirno sprawling. Rumia charged at Cirno and dropped her shoulder into her Cirno's stomach. Cirno collapsed into a coughing, wheezing heap. Rumia picked her up by the hair. Cirno screamed as she felt her hair being pulled out of their roots. "I'M THE STRONGEST NOW!" she screamed triumphantly.

Cirno looked up and smiled. "You just need to cool down!" she said. She grabbed Rumia's head and started to freeze it. Rumia broke away, screaming in pain at the sudden, intense cold. She wiped away the chunks of ice to see clearly. As her vision cleared she saw a human shape kneeling on the ground. When her vision cleared, she saw it was a bloodied Garcia aiming the rocket launcher at her.

"Say cheese," he whispered. He pulled the trigger and the missile flew at Rumia. Rumia tried to block the missile, but failed. She was sent sprawling into the woods. Along the way she passed her hair ribbon which tied itself back into her hair, using whatever mysterious magic it contained with it. Rumia returned to her normal form and laid in the woods unconscious. Garcia fell over and the marine and Cirno rushed to his side.

"Mr. Garcia!" Cirno called to Garcia, "We did it! Mr.-" She stopped herself when she looked at Garcia's lifeless face. She was about to cry, until she saw the smile on his face. She smiled and couldn't help but let her tears run down her face. Rumia wandered out of the woods, groggy and disoriented.

"Uhhh...what happened?" she asked, confused, "Cirno? Why are you here? Why are you crying?"

"I'll explain later," Cirno said. Rumia looked at the lifeless body.

"Did I do that?" she asked nervously. She sensed she had done something wrong and felt immediately guilty for it. "If he was friend, I'm really sorry," Rumia said, bowing her head low.

"It's alright," Slim said, "He knew what he was getting himself into. He wouldn't want us moping about like a bunch of wusses."

"My name is Rumia," Rumia said, "I want to make it up to you guys for what I did. I know! I'll help you out of the woods! I know them better than Cirno."

"Nuh uh!" Cirno retorted, "I know them better than you do!"

"Is that so?" Rumia challenged. The two argued, but not in an unfriendly manner.

The marines buried Garcia in a clearing that Rumia showed them. It was next to a pond that she said no one went to. When the party left Cirno was the last to leave the clearing. She noticed that whatever evil power had controlled Rumia left, the forest became brighter. She saw a sun beam land on Garcia's grave, shining on it with its brilliance. She thought she saw the shape of a man clad in Federation power armor standing next to the grave, smiling and waving at Cirno. Cirno rubbed her eyes and the man was gone. Cirno smiled and said, "Goodbye, Mr. Garcia."


	18. Wrath of the Goddesses

Chapter 18: Wrath of the Goddesses

Date: June 21, 2010

Location: Base of Youkai Mountain

Condition of Target Area: Low levels of background radiation detected. No precautions needed.

Momiji Inubashiri was on a late night patrol of the path leading up Youkai Mountain. She had white hair and red eyes, and was wearing a long black and red skirt, a white shirt with detached sleeves, and a red tokin atop her head. Her most defining features were her white wolf ears and tail. She was a white wolf tengu who guarded the Youkai Mountain from intruders, mainly humans. She mainly did her job for their own good. Some of the youkai and tengu that live on the mountain dislike humans and would love nothing more than to tear apart a human and serve them up with a side of dipping sauce. However, human travelers are few and far between, and Momiji often played Dai shogi with the kappa when they weren't busy working with Utsuho on the "Nuclear Project," as it was called. Momiji didn't know the details, but she knew it was a big project.

Momiji sat on a nearby rock and ate a late dinner of rice and pork in the light of a lantern. Momiji liked to think about current events during patrols like this, even with the waterfalls roaring behind her. Lately, the shrine maiden had been acting strange along with the goddesses that lived with her. One of the goddesses, Kanako Yasaka, who usually assisted the kappa with the "Nuclear Project," failed to show up during the days they needed her the most. When they went up to investigate, they were quickly turned back, some of them severely injured. One of the lead engineers of the project, Nitori Kawashiro, said that the project would have to be delayed, which infuriated Utsuho. She left in a rage and didn't come back until that day. To make matters worse, reports of tengu and youkai being attacked near the shrine started to raise tensions between the humans and the youkai. Momiji was starting to hope that no humans would come her way tonight. She didn't really want to deal with it.

Suddenly, she caught a whiff of a scent she never smelled before mixed with human. She set her dinner down and stood up to get a better look of what was coming her way. She saw a person, clad head to toe in orange and red armor, heading her way. The person was running at speeds that would make Aya jealous. As Momiji thought of Aya, she remembered that Aya was away for awhile getting news stories, returned, and left as fast she came. She wondered why she did that. Could this person have anything to do with it?

Momiji leaped off the rock she was, picked up her sword and shield, and barred the person's path. Samus skidded to a stop once she saw Momiji.

"Turn around and head back the way you came," Momiji said firmly. "This is no place for humans."

Samus quickly sized up Momiji before responding. She didn't want to fight the tengu but would if she had to. "I need to get up that mountain," Samus said, motioning upwards.

"I can't let you do that," Momiji said. "There's a situation up there that's extremely dangerous for humans."

"I know," Samus said. "That's why I'm going up there."

Momiji blinked in surprise. How did this outsider know about the situation? "Did Aya send you here?" Momiji asked, probing for answers.

"Yes, she did, now are you going to move or not?"

Momiji paused for a few moments. To let a human up the mountain without the permission of Lord Tenma would put Momiji in a heap of trouble. But then again, there was a situation at the summit and the human looked like she could handle herself.

"Alright, you can go up, but you need to follow my lead, alright?" Momiji said.

"Thank you," Samus said.

Momiji quickly ate the rest of her food and put out her lantern. She did a "follow me" motion and Samus followed. They stayed off the main trail but Momiji knew the mountain like the back of her hand. Despite wearing bulky looking armor, Samus was surprisingly quiet. After dodging a couple tengu patrols and skirting around the village, Momiji led Samus to the bottom of the stairs leading to the shrine. "This is as far as I go," Momiji said. "Up there is the Moriya shrine. I don't know what's going on there, but the shrine maiden that lives there, Sanae Moriya, has two goddesses living with her. All three of them are extremely dangerous. I wish you luck and I hope I don't see your body at the bottom of these stairs later." Momiji turned away and started walking back to her post, but stopped. "By the way...what's your name, stranger?"

"My name is Samus Aran," Samus said.

"Nice to meet you, Samus," Momiji said, bowing slightly. "You can call me Momiji." And with that Momiji melted into the shadows. Samus turned and looked up the stairs. Samus had a feeling of dread as to what she would see at the top of the mountain, but she forced herself to walk up the stairs. She was on high alert and walked carefully up, her arm cannon aimed ahead of her. When she made it to the top the stairs, the air was completely still and heavy. No animal made a sound. The only sound was the faint roar of a waterfall and the lapping of water on the shore of the lake in front of the shrine. The shrine was bigger and in better shape than the Hakurei Shrine. However, there was an aura of evil hanging around this shrine that Hakurei Shrine lacked.

Samus ran to the front of the shrine door as silently as she could. There was a light on in the shrine, so she knew that there were people still awake. Samus silently counted to three and then threw the door open, aiming her arm cannon at...absolutely nothing. Samus lowered her aim and looked around at the inside of the shrine. There was an altar at one end, a futon in the middle of the room with a small lantern next to it, several boxes of what appeared to be manga scattered across the room, and a dresser. Samus walked into the room and got halfway across it when she heard the door slide shut. She barely had time to turn around when she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen that knocked the wind out of her. Samus fell to her knees, gasping for air.

"Thought you could the jump on us, huh?" a female voice sneered. Samus didn't even have time to look up when she felt blow to her head that knocked her flat.

"Look at her suffer!" a younger female voice exclaimed. Another blow, this time to Samus' back.

"Guess she isn't so tough after all," an older female voice said. Samus looked up and saw three figures standing over her. One of them was a girl about Reimu's age. She was wearing a blue and white shrine maiden's outfit, had long green hair with a snake ornament and frog hair clip in it. The other girl appeared younger and was wearing short purple dress with white sleeves and thigh high stockings, had long blonde hair, and a large brown hat with two eyes on top. The other girl was more of a woman. She was very imposing in stature. She had shoulder length, yet voluminous, blue hair, was wearing a red shirt with a mirror in the center, and a long red skirt with flower designs around the hem. Her most defining feature was the large, twisting rope circle shimenawa with shide on her back.

"What do you think we should do with her, Kanako?" the green haired girl asked.

"Personally, I think we should toss her over the side of the mountain," Kanako replied.

"Auuuu~!" the blonde haired girl groaned. "That's no fun!"

"Then what do you suggest then, Suwako?" Kanako asked.

"I think we should test her out!" Suwako suggested.

"You mean fight her?" the green haired girl asked.

"Yeah, Sanae!" Suwako said. "Fight her!"

As soon as Suwako finished her sentence, Samus raised her arm cannon and fired a multi-missile at the group. The combined fire knocked back the girls, giving time for Samus to recover. She stood up and checked her energy meter. Her energy meter read half-full. _Plenty, _Samus thought.

"I'll go first!" Suwako cried out. Suddenly several large, steel rings flew out of the smoke Samus dodged them by nimbly jumping and leaping under and over them. She ran at the goddess and dropped her shoulder before she could attack again, sending them both through the wall.

"Suwako!" Sanae cried out. Samus was about fire point blank at Suwako, but stopped. Suwako gave Samus a sad, frightened look that made Samus hesitate. Suddenly, Suwako's expression turned to malice and a larger snake like being shot out from underneath Samus, launching her into the air. Suwako laughed wickedly as the large serpent opened it's mouth to eat Samus whole. Samus didn't have time react as the serpent swallowed her.

"There!" Suwako said, triumphantly. "That wasn't so hard!" She began walking away, but stopped when she heard a loud rumbling. The serpent roared in pain as a blinding white light shout out of it's mouth. The serpent exploded in this same light and a wave of heat rushed out from the center of it. Suwako was left in shock and awe. She wasn't even aware of the large metal ball flying at her at high speed. Samus had gone into Morph Ball mode and detonated a power bomb from inside the serpent, effectively freeing herself from digestion. The resulting blast had launched her from the serpent and at Suwako, thus knocking out Suwako as Samus collided with her.

Samus reverted back to normal and turned to the remaining two girls. "Who's next?" she asked calmly. Sanae stepped forward, scowling.

"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, do you?" she asked angrily. "Sea Opening: Moses's Miracle!" The lake behind her erupted in a wall of water that came crashing down on Samus, engulfing her in gallons of water. When the water receded, Samus was nowhere to be found.

"I think I handled that a little better," Sanae bragged. Suddenly, the lake started crackling with electricity. Samus then shot out of the lake, performing her signature Screw Attack. "I-impossible!" Sanae stammered. She barely had time to dodge the deadly attack as Samus space jumped towards her. She landed next to Sanae, her suit now covered having purple plates of armor instead of orange. Samus then swung her arm cannon outward, attempting to knock Sanae flat. Sanae ducked, drew a charm, and stuck it onto Samus's Power Suit. The charm then crackled a bit and then brought Samus to her knees, clutching the side where the charm was stuck to. Sanae laughed evilly.

"This charm will drain the power out of anything it touches, even power suits!" she mocked. Samus was surprised.

"How...do you...know...?" Samus started to ask.

"I come from Outside World, stupid!" Sanae sneered. "I know all about mangas and animes that contain characters with power suits."

Samus then grabbed the charm and tore it off. Her energy meter read less than a quarter capacity. She then charged her arm cannon and fired a Super Missile at Sanae, knocking her all the way back to the lake shore.

"It's just you and me now, Kanako," Samus said, standing up. Kanako smiled and then laughed wickedly.

"She's coming, you know...earlier than you expect," she said.

"What?" Samus asked.

"That's right," Kanako said. "The bane of your existence is returning here right before the Summer Festival. She didn't want to be late, you know."

"How do you know about this? Why are you all acting like the exact opposites of yourselves?"

"The asteroid that she's arriving on is incredibly close. She knows you're in Gensokyo, so she gave some of us a little boost to our abilities." Samus frowned behind her visor.

"Abilities?" she asked. "All she has done so far is drive you mad. A madness that can only be driven away with force."

"Such a foolish human," Kanako said. "You think you can actually fight a goddess as powerful as me? The goddess you defeated is a weakling compared to me. I'm the one who defeated that fool and her army of snakes. What makes you think you can defeat me?"

Samus was silent for a few moments before responding. "I have a mission to accomplish," she said simply. She fired several missiles at Kanako shortly afterward.

"You are a foolish one, aren't you?" Kanako sneered. She summoned several large onbashira from her back. She then swatted aside the missiles with one of the onbashira. "I can fire missiles too, human." She then fired the onbashira at Samus. Samus then leaped over two of them running forward at Kanako, while trying to dodge the onslaught. Samus then slid underneath one onbashira, but was then crushed by another, draining and entire energy tank. Kanako repeated the attack over and over again, smashing an onbashira onto Samus repeatedly. Samus looked at her energy meter. Her meter read ten and her remaining tanks were drained. An alarm bell was ringing in her helmet alerting her to the problem.

"You can't win!" Kanako cackled. "There's nothing you can do!" She raised the onbashira and swung down.

_This is it...I failed,_ Samus thought to herself. She closed her eyes and awaited for the crushing blow of the onbashira...which never came. She opened her eyes and saw Momiji struggling to hold the onbashira over her head. "Finish her, Samus!" Momiji shouted. Samus didn't even hesitate. She switched to her Wave Beam, charged it, and performed a Wavebuster attack. A stream of violet, electric energy shot out of Samus's arm cannon, striking Kanako in the chest. Kanako screamed in pain. Samus didn't let up until her missiles were depleted. Kanako fell to the ground, arcs of electricity surging from her body.

"Where did you come from?" Samus asked.

"I changed my mind, followed you here and kept myself hidden," Momiji explained. "I figured you had it handled until Kanako almost killed you."

"Thank you," Samus said, putting out her hand in a handshake gesture. Momiji looked at the hand with confusion, not recognizing the gesture at first. She then realized it was handshake and she shook Samus's hand (albeit a bit awkwardly at first). Samus was beginning to tire of the alarm bell going off and she began to notice her visor was beginning to static up. She removed her helmet and noticed that Sanae had gotten up. The shrine maiden looked shocked at the destruction around her.

"Kanako! Suwako!" she cried out when she saw the two goddesses lying motionless on the ground. She then noticed Samus standing near Kanako. "YOU!" she shrieked. She reached for her charms but stopped when she noticed that she was looking down the barrel of Samus's arm cannon.

"Don't," Samus said sternly. Sanae relaxed, but she was still angered by Samus's actions. "Have a couple questions I want to ask you. First, do you remember anything that happened here recently?"

"No," Sanae said. "Now why did you-?"

"Second," Samus interrupted, "do you remember you or the other two goddesses mentioning something known as Dark Samus or Metroid Prime or a blue armored woman?"

"Now that you mention it, Kanako was mentioning something about a blue armored woman talking to her one day," Sanae said. "I thought she had met some other goddess, but then she started acting weird, then Suwako started acting funny, and then...well I don't remember the rest." Samus lowered her aim.

"So she can corrupt deities and those connected to her...she's more powerful than I thought," Samus said out loud to herself.

"Ummm, who are you talking about?" Sanae asked. "Because, now I'm really confused."

"I'll explain later," Samus said. "Right now we need to get to Hakurei Shrine."

"Hold on!" Sanae said loudly. "First of all, I have a headache that can drop an oni, second, two of the goddesses I live with are either out cold or worse, and third, MY SHRINE IS I am not going anywhere until these problems are fixed!"

Samus and Momiji looked at each other for a moment and then both of them looked at Sanae. "Why are you two looking at me like that? Hey, why are you two walking towards me like that? Where did you get the bag! HEY-MMMMMPH! MMMMMMPPH!"

Reimu and Marisa were watching the sunrise and sipping warm tea when Samus came back with a large sack filled with something slung over her shoulder.

"Hey Samus," Reimu said. "What's in the bag?"

"Yeah," Marisa added. "And why is it moving and wriggling all weird~ze?"

"I brought you all a friend," Samus said, smiling. She gently laid down the sack and untied it...revealing a bound and gagged (and very irate) Sanae.

"SANAE!" the two girls both cried out in confusion. They both then fell upon in each other in uncontrollable laughter.

"Someone go wake Aya up!" Marisa said, in between bouts of laughter. "She has to get a picture of this!"

"Sorry Sanae!" Reimu said. "We got a little bit tired of dealing with incidents today, so we sent out our new bounty hunter friend to take care of you!"

Sanae glared at them all. Samus was even laughing at the comedy in the situation. But at the back of her mind was a sense of dread and the knowing that Dark Samus would soon be upon them...sooner than any of them had anticipated.


End file.
